Green Door Magazine: Spring 2013 with Pablo Schreiber

Local & Green Gifts for Kids • Shopping Cart Smarts • A History of Violets

A J O U R N A L O F R E S P O N S I B L E L I V I N G I N T H E C AT S K I L L S A N D H U D S O N VA L L E Y

CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN

BETHEL WOODS

something happening here VOL 3 No. 1 SPRING 2013 $4.99

WWW.GREENDOORMAG.COM

MUSIC OF LARD DOG THE PERFECT SPRING SOUP

DISPLAY UNTIL JUNE 3, 2013

y Machine-Free Farming, Ghosts of the Catskills & More

Spring 13

IN THIS ISSUE 3

GREETINGS Sprung CLIPPINGS From Around the Region

4

FOLK Pablo Schreiber Television and theatre star talks being inside the box.

7

KIDS Local & Green Gift Ideas

8

PHOTOGRAPHY Ghosts of the Catskills

12

COVER PHOTO: DANA DUKE WWW.DANADUKE.COM

16

INTERIORS Rosendale Revisited:1850 House LISTENING Rendering a Dream: Lard Dog

22

HISTORY 22 Sweet Violets 24 A Tale from the Early History of Upper Delaware County

26

ART Carolee Schneemann

30

NEIGHBORS Local Calendar

32

THE BOOKSHELF Spring Reading

33

WOODSHED Music in Unexpected Places II

34

SOCIAL PRINT Mum’s Not the Word

36

LOCAVORE 36 Home Grown Root N Roost Farm is all by hand.

39 Recipe: Chicken Soup

41

THE GREAT INDOORS Selling A Dream

42

INTO THE WOODS Bethel Woods: There’s Something Happening Here

44

WELLNESS Shopping Cart Smarts

46

ENDPAPER 46 Grinding: Liberty Skate Park 48 Democracy Now

EDITOR Akira Ohiso PUBLISHER Ellie Ohiso MARKETING DIRECTOR Aaron Fertig ADVERTISING SALES Sharon Reich 845-254-3103 COPY EDITORS Donata C. Marcus Eileen Fertig CIRCULATION DIRECTOR John A. Morthanos CONTRIBUTORS Susan Barnett James Beaudreau Jay Blotcher Andrea Brown Tobe Carey John Conway Jennifer Desrochers Dana Duke Elizabeth Ennis Keith Ferris William Landau Jennifer Medley Kelly Merchant Nick Piatek Marisa Scheinfeld Catie Baumer Schwalb Kate Trennery

AD SALESPERSON WANTED Experience required.

Ulster/Dutchess preferred. Email resume to ads@greendoormag.com or (845) 55-GD-MAG.

CONTACT US Green Door Magazine Inc. P.O. Box 143 Liberty, NY 12754 204 Main Street Hurleyville, NY 12747 Email: info@greendoormag.com Phone: (845) 55-GD-MAG www.greendoormag.com facebook.com/greendoormag twitter.com/greendoormag pinterest.com/greendoormag greendoormag.tumblr.com RECYCLE THIS, SHARE WITH A FRIEND! 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 may be used without written permission of the publisher Š2013.

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

CLIPPINGS | AROUND THE REGION

Sprung

Hybrid Diner

Phoenicia Diner When the Phoenicia Diner reopened under new ownership, it had a new logo with an old look - a wood-paneled station wagon with summer gear strapped to the roof and a musty summer camp font. Owner Mike Cioffi understands branding.

In this case, it is the evocation of nostalgia.

Remember when families packed up the car and traveled the byways of America? Along Route 28, a travelers’ corridor, the new look diner uses locally-sourced ingredients, but sticks to classic diner food that comforts a burgeoning roadside culture.

FOR MORE INFO phoeniciadiner.com

Take a Hike The Green Door Interactive Wall at the old Liberty Theatre asked people to finish this sentence: I would like to see this storefront become_____________.

The outpouring of responses was mostly from the youth of Liberty asking the powers that be to act. As spring approaches, I think of our children.

William Shakespeare once said, “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” Children are seeds, new beginnings, and a chance to reconcile the past by cultivating the future. Here are some seeds:

Andes Rail Trail The trail begins at the historic 1907 Depot Building where the short-lived Delaware & Northern Railroad once served a bustling Andes community. The one mile trail travels along the old rail bed and offers year-round natural beauty and scenic views. It is appropriate for all ages.

This spring, an additional 1.5 mile trail opens for moderate hiking.

FOR MORE INFO andesworks.com/rail-trail

Food Truck

Ate O Ate Catering Food trucks used to push boiled hot dogs outside construction sites, but in recent years the caliber of food truck fare has reached culinary heights.

Chef Rich Ellsworth’s food truck originates in Roxbury, NY, but travels around the region serving up Sesame Encrusted Ahi Tuna and Duck Gumbo with Crispy Cracklins. Check their website or Facebook page for locations, menus and times.

FOR MORE INFO ateoatecatering.com

Bring Natural Home

Natural Contents Kitchen “Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing.”

- Banksy

Natural Contents’ Kitchen is a weekly food share that uses fresh wholesome ingredients: organic, non-GMO, naturally gluten-free...and delicious.

Select from a weekly online menu and get your order at select locations. Delicious, healthy meals that make a positive impact on the local economy.

FOR MORE INFO naturalcontents.com 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 3

inside the box

Actor Pablo Schreiber finds a home in familiar places.

4 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

FOLK | PABLO SCHREIBER

p

ablo Schreiber is an actor’s actor.

Throughout his young career he has worked in film, television and on Broadway.

He is best known as street tough Nick Sobotka on HBO’s hit-series The Wire and then on season seven of Weeds as Nancy Botwin’s drug supplier, Demetri Ravitch. He gained recognition when he was nominated for a Tony in the acclaimed 2006 production of Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing. Other standout performances came in Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms, Christopher Shinn’s Dying City and Neil LaBute’s Reasons to Be Pretty.

see with many new fathers balancing career and parenthood. The death of an unattached and freer time before kids, car payments and domesticity is hard to let go. “I’m not in the same position I was early in my career where I could just do whatever I wanted,” says Schreiber. “I’ve priced myself out of doing theatre right now until I find a gig that is lucrative enough to support the theatre habit.”

For Schreiber, there is a palpable struggle between art and commerce. He would really need to love a network television series to uproot his family and relocate.

“I think acting in its nature is a very selfcentered profession,” says Schreiber. “For me, I’ve always got to be balancing that against the fact that I have this family that has needs.”

Schreiber grew up in rural British Columbia and remembers an upbringing connected to nature and the outdoors.

His father, Tell Schreiber, was an actor and lover of literature. Schreiber’s namesake is Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. A seminal moment came when he saw Daniel DayLewis in My Left Foot. “His influence on my appreciation of acting is enormous,” says Schreiber. “Whatever tools he uses to make his world more believable to him, These days his acting choices filter his ability to completely transform from through his growing family. He married role to role is uncanny. It simultaneously yoga instructor Jessica Monty in 2007. inspires me to hone my craft and makes They have two young sons. “My energy me want to give it up entirely.” is with my children,” says Schreiber. “The main thing I can do is to be a good father While Daniel Day Lewis has been labeled and my work is secondary to that.” a “method actor,” Schreiber finds the term misleading. “The term ‘Method’ no There is a duality to Schreiber that I longer means anything,” says Schreiber.

At thirty-four, his oeuvre is all about his choices. From Peruvian shaman Anton Little Creek in A Gifted Man to a sadomasochistic correction officer named “Pornstache” in the new Jenji Kohan series, Orange is the New Black, Schreiber’s choices are eclectic. “I hope my work speaks for itself in its range and variety,” says Schreiber.

BY AKIRA OHISO | PHOTOS BY DANA DUKE

PHOTOS: DANA DUKE

DANADUKE.COM

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 5

FOLK | PABLO SCHREIBER CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

“It has become a completely subjective catch-all term that people use for anyone who does something to prepare for a role that they deem to be excessive or odd.” A famous example is Robert De Niro gaining sixty pounds to play an aging Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull.

Actors are notorious for staying in character between takes or off set, but this is often misconstrued as part of The Method System which was never taught by Lee Strasberg, the creator of “the Method.” “Method Acting is, in actuality, a series of techniques used to flesh out the inner life of the character that anyone who went to acting school after the 1950s has been thoroughly exposed to and likely, consciously or not, uses in their work,” says Schreiber.

After years in Williamsburg, Red Hook and Jersey City, Schreiber and his wife decided to leave after experiencing the highlycompetitive school application process of their son.

They liked the Montessori educational approach and found the Homestead School in Glen Spey, a rural hamlet of Lumberland in Southern Sullivan County. Schreiber was secretly yearning for a simpler life and when his wife mentioned moving upstate he was thrilled. “I always wanted to go one step further and give my kids the same kind of upbringing I had.”

In 2010, they bought a home in Jeffersonville, NY. They have a garden, some chickens and may graduate to larger farm animals.

“We love the community,” says Schreiber. “There are a lot of likeminded people who moved up for the same reasons we have - to give their children access to a slower and simpler life.”

Many actors have weekend homes, but Schreiber is a full-time resident. He travels for acting work and seems to be gravitating towards cable and subscriber networks. His new project, Orange is the New Black, is a Netflix original series. “There’s more quality shows on TV than there ever has been,” says Schreiber. “I would even say cable TV has now become the destination where great work is happening even more than independent film.”

Shows like Boardwalk Empire and Homeland are examples of the high caliber you don’t often find on network television. “Cable networks and subscriber networks don’t run on advertising dollars,” says Schreiber. “They’re free from corporate sponsorship and the real ratings game.”

The long-form narrative of cable TV is unappealing to Nielsen families who like the episodic and serial forms of conventional television. “When you try to get the highest ratings possible you want your show to be as simple and as easy to understand, which means dumbing it down,” says Schreiber. Narrative complexity “demands an active and attentive process of comprehension to decode both the complex stories and modes of storytelling offered by contemporary television,” says Jason Mittell author of the journal article Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television.

Today, cable TV is not the proverbial idiot box. In 2012, film director Martin Scorsese voiced a possible foray into television because of its narrative quality. “There are really creative people who have decided to make their home in cable TV,” says Schreiber.

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KIDS | GREEN GIFTS

Baby Greens

Your conscience is clear when you shop eco-local for the kiddies.

RADICAL SMOKEY THE BEAR TEE LMNOP lmnopi.blogspot.com

DECOMPOSITION BOOK High Falls Mercantile High Falls, NY ECO-CRAYONS Waddle n Swaddle Rhinebeck, NY

KLEAN KANTEEN STEEL BOTTLE Mountain Tops, Beacon, NY www.mountaintopsonline.com

EEBOO GARDEN GAME Illuminated Baby, Woodstock, NY www.illuminatedbaby.com

HUMAN LARD DOG CD North Branch, NY www.houseoflard.com 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 7

PHOTOGRAPHY | GHOSTS OF THE CATSKILLS

GHOSTS OF THE CATSKILLS PHOTO ESSAY BY ELIZABETH ENNIS & ANDREA BROWN OF THE OUTSIDER’S STUDIO COLLECTIVE

“Ghosts of the Catskills” will be on exhibition this summer at the Catskill Art Society in Livingston Manor.

FOR MORE INFO The Outsider’s Studio www.theoutsidersstudio.com 8 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

The Pines Entrance

hile the Jews of New York fled to the Catskills, the Jews of my world in Western Massachusetts, not far from the Berkshires, fled to a country club called Crestview where “kibitzing” in Yiddish or with heavy Russian accents, amidst playing canasta or mahjong along the pool side, all of us over-tanning ourselves with the help of Ban de Soleil when not swimming, made everyday feel like one’s best day. Golf and tennis were the sports most played, and at night we were able to express our loud, not well-behaved personalities with bountiful banquets and comedic entertainment rife with distasteful Yiddish jokes that were so much a part of my family’s rather obnoxious humor. My grandfather, Myron Zimmerman, we called him “Pop,” was a master mimicker who could spit out one bad joke after another with his large toothed, goldfilled grin laughing for all of us. Like the Borsht Belt Catskill resorts, we had a ton of fun entertaining each other. Dressed to kill, with our Sephardic skin tanning to dark hard leather, we showed off our prosperity both inwardly and outwardly. A typical Friday meant not only getting ready for Shabbat, but ladies beelining it to the hairdresser; it was a weekly ritual to have one’s locks washed, set and sprayed, just in time for weekend events at Crestview. On those evenings, the men compared their golf scores over cocktails while the women admired each other’s bargain outfits purchased from the sales racks at Saks or Bloomingdale’s.

W

Top Left: The Pines Pool Left: Tamarack Exhibition Hall and Tamarack Bingo Card

The Grossinger’s Pool 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 9

The Grossinger’s Hallway 12 GREEN DOOR | WINTER 2012

Doll outside a Liberty Bungalow Left: The Grossinger’s Salon Right: The Pines Chandeliers Bottom: Liberty Drive-In Tickets

See more photos at www.Facebook.com/GreenDoorMag 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 11

INTERIORS | ROSENDALE

rosendale revisited

BY JAY BLOTCHER | PHOTOS BY KEITH FERRIS

The Ulster County town of Rosendale has lived many lives: a boisterous 19th century outpost of bars, boarding houses and bordellos for cement miners; a sleepy burg for residents shifting from agriculture to factory work; and, most recently, a haven for artists and musicians relocating from New York City.

The past, present and future of Rosendale are commemorated with style and whimsy in the 1850 House, a self-described “boutique inn” that opened in March 2012. The new accommodations offer a burst of life to a town that has been weathered by economic challenges in the last generation.

The building itself is steeped in history. For 130 years, it was known as The American Hotel, a modest but inviting brick edifice that offered shelter and sustenance to travelers. The structure became efficiency apartments in the 1980s and the spirit of the place seemed to sag with the cycle of transients who took up residence. But in the early years of the 21st century, local businessman Mike Ruger engineered an ambitious reincarnation for the structure at 435 Main Street.

12 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

Echoes of Rosendale’s past are omnipresent. They beckon in the poster-sized enlargements of vintage postcards on the walls, reminding guests how the hotel and town looked a century ago. Over my bed was a postersized image of the trestle of the Rosendale Railroad Bridge with a train, frozen in time, as it chugged across the bridge.

Outside my window stood the selfsame trestle, now a rail trail.

A tangible sense of yesteryear radiates from the antiques that nestle in corners and wall nooks throughout the three floors of the building: a 1930s folding camera here, an 1890s fire hose holder there. The past lives on in the elegantly turned banisters and original plank floors, as well as the old barn door repurposed for indoor use.

For every totem of the past, however, there is a flourish of modern-day life. Elegant and inviting chairs and sofas are scattered throughout the eclectic décor that offers alternating notes of Asian and American Southwest design. Asked for a guiding philosophy in the creation of The 1850 House, Ruger has a simple answer. He wanted to create a place where people could feel comfortable hanging out.

Wonderful details abound that make one feel pampered. There are personal logo mugs, thick towels and comfy bathrobes.

Helpful binders stuffed with information about area destinations are in every room.

Flatscreen televisions and DVD

PHOTOS: KEITH FERRIS

FOR MORE INFO The 1850 House & Tavern 435 Main Street Rosendale, NY 845-658-7800 855-658-1850 (toll-free) www.the1850house.com

The 1850 House offers 12 rooms of varying shapes and sizes, each with a private bathroom and king- or queen-size bed.

Working with area contractors and designers, Ruger has rejuvenated the 19th century hotel, offering a beguiling hybrid of old and new, comfortable and stylish, trendy and traditional.

Whether you are only looking for a home base between day trips through the region, or crave

a refuge from everyday chaos, The 1850 House will provide.

2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 13

INTERIORS | ROSENDALE

players are in every room and there is a mini-cooler at floor level.

Throughout the hotel there are numerous corners for curling up and letting the world go by. Check out the back room that gives onto the canal, the spacious common room with a gas fireplace, the expansive front porch and the reading nooks on each floor.

Breakfasts are cooked fresh daily. I choose the sausage and egg tortilla casserole with salsa and banana nut bread one morning. Juice, tea and coffee were plentiful. Additionally, the common room coffee machine operates at any hour, day or night.

In the evening you can gather with fellow lodgers and locals in The 1850 House Tavern, a convivial room where owner Ruger pours regional microbrew beers on tap as well as upscale spirits. Whiskey lovers should order The Widow Jane, crafted with water from the eponymous cement mine down the road.

There are, however, a few adjustments necessary to maximize the bliss factor of this boutique inn. My bathroom lacked shelves to set down my toiletries, making morning ablutions an awkward affair. My room also lacked a dresser, forcing me to live out of my suitcase. Unfortunately, the illusion of time-travel created by the dĂŠcor is interrupted periodically by modern traffic on Main Street.

Better-insulated windows could have muffled the din.

Yet The 1850 House remains a glorious retreat. In fact, management has planned additional improvements, including a back deck for warm-weather gatherings and a spa across the street, offering massage, beauty treatments and yoga.

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BB

Ruger has rejuvenated the 19thcentury hotel, offering a hybrid of old and new, comfortable and stylish, trendy and traditional.

Echoes of Rosendale’s past are everywhere from the poster-sized enlargements of vintage postcards on the walls, to the antiques that nestle in corners and wall nooks throughout the building. The past lives on in a 1930s folding camera, an 1890s fire hose holder and the elegantly turned banisters and original plank floors, as well as a repurposed old barn door.

2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 15

LISTENING | LARD DOG

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Rendering A Dream Steve Erdman was hanging in London with some friends when he discovered a fondness for lard, the rendered fat of pigs. “There was something about the word,” says Erdman. As a wordsmith, he started using “Lard” as a substitute for other words. “Instead of saying ‘goodbye’ I said ‘Lard.’” Strange juxtapositions were fun too: Lard, Ham, Nine.

In the early 90s, Erdman was working as an architectural draftsman, but after hours returned to his Lower East Side apartment on Ludlow Street to illustrate a comic strip called Lard. “I had this other side to me and it was underground cartoonist guy,” says Erdman. He hung out with cartoonists like Danny Hellman, Tony Millionaire, Mike Kupperman and Sam Henderson who all made names for themselves. Lard gave Erdman a name.

Erdman grew up ingesting Americana magazines like Life and Mad. The red and white Life font stuck. “Instead of Life, it was Lard,” says Erdman, framing the word with his hands.

An opportunity came along when a friend asked Erdman to perform on a public access show. Erdman jumped at the chance. There was no script except acting zany in a nerdy Jerry Lewis voice. Erdman called the show The Lard Dogs. Actual lard was used as a prop. In one scenario, Erdman wore a hard hat with a cheese sandwich on top. Firecrackers placed in the sandwich exploded and cheese flew all over the set.

Friend Dan Hellman was organizing art shows at Max Fish, a popular Ludlow club at the time where hipster Lower East Siders frequented. Erdman had refined Lard Dog to Human Lard Dog to add a touch of surrealism. He performed in hiked up shorts and crooned about shoes. He was becoming CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 known for his silly catchy songs.

BY AKIRA OHISO | PHOTOS BY KELLY MERCHANT 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 17

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

He pitched the Lard concept to Nickelodeon and landed a development deal. After a oneyear stint, Nick pulled the plug, but Erdman gained valuable experience.

He was nominated for an Ace Award for a character he developed called Stick Stickly, which aired on Nickelodeon in the mid-90s.

He returned to the LES scene to focus on his music. He started playing with accomplished jazz musicians like bassist Lee Alexander who was dating an unknown singer, at the time, named Norah Jones.

Jones joined in and brought along her backup singer Daru Oda. “It was the first time I added backup singers to the line up and they were amazing singers, creating harmonies to the parts I had never done before,” says Erdman. “They dressed in crazy outfit and wigs and were really silly on stage.”

Erdman soon learned that Norah Jones had signed to Columbia Records. “When Norah went on tour to promote her debut record, Come Away With Me, she told me to put her down as tentative for upcoming shows, but it became evident pretty quickly that she wasn’t coming back.” But, working with talented Jones, raised the bar for Erdman. “She changed my head of where I could go.”

He found new backup singers on a subway platform in Grand Central Station.

Two homeless gospel singers - Tamika and Nicole - sang like Aretha Franklin and he knew he needed to work with them. “I made a deal that they could stay in my apartment if they would learn the lyrics and perform at my shows,” says Erdman. In a cramped Lower East Side apartment, he simply “put a curtain down the middle.” The La’ Delles were born.

The La’ Delles performed on his first demo, which has been circulated gratis among friends and in hip circles. You can listen to nine of those original songs on the House of Lard website. A new album is scheduled for release later this year.

Burned out by city life, Erdman and then-girlfriend, Kimberly Guise, moved to the Catskills to

LISTENING | LARD DOG

start a record label despite having no prior experience. They bought a farmhouse in the rural town of North Branch in Western Sullivan County.

Lard Dog took a back seat to married life, having children, raising a family and running their independent label Go Records.

The label’s first and only artist is old friend James Hunter who was established in England, but unknown in the states. The sole purpose was to introduce Hunter’s music to a wider audience. And it did.

In 2006, Hunter’s first solo US album, People Gonna Talk, took off.

He was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. Erdman and Guise traveled the country with Hunter in support of the album. A second album, The Hard Way, was released in 2008 and Hunter’s third, Minute By Minute, is set for release in early 2013. Erdman and Guise will be heading to Los Angeles to see Hunter perform on Jay Leno.

Erdman feels he is finally ready to make Human Lard Dog front and center. Thinking back to his time at Nickelodeon, he now realizes he wasn’t ready. “I was a bit ego-driven and didn’t have answers for things.”

His pitch was undefined and, perhaps, not mainstream enough for the corporate decision-makers at Viacom. Older and wiser, Lard has become the acronym for “Life’s a Real Dream.” “It’s all about loving yourself and going for your dream,” says Erdman.

PHOTOS: KELLY MERCHANT, ART: STEVE ERDMAN

He found a creative kinship with North Branch neighbor, Marc Switko, who grew up in Sullivan County from a borscht belt hotel family. Switko is a multi-talented musician, performer and writer who also works as a child psychologist.

Switko and Erdman created Belopian Life Lessons, a series of quotes about life in Belopio where Human Lard Dog was born and then traveled to earth on a giant pretzel.

Is Belopio a real planet or an alternate dimension for living?

Erdman explains: “On Belopio your dreams can fly. We dig holes-- upwards. We climb telephone poles and put lima beans on our heads. And we like to

eat socks. We drink Crangleberry tea. It’s where everybody knows to get away and everybody knows not what to say.”

With harsh winters, desolate landscapes and no hipster amenity in sight, Sullivan County is not for everyone. But, for real artists, there’s a tormented aspect that fosters creativity. “There’s an oddball quality to Sullivan County that allows you to truly create your own scene,” says Erdman.

Tannis Kowalchuk, co-founder of the NACL Theatre in Highland Lake, NY, encouraged Erdman to apply for the Deep Space Residency Program at the theater. In June of 2012, Erdman and his Band of Shy received a week of theatre space and housing in exchange for a public performance at the end of the week.

“Sullivan County has allowed me to tap into some really cool people,” says Erdman, “It’s an incubator for ideas.”

While Human Lard Dog is a hit with children, Erdman doesn’t write songs specifically for children. His music and art are meant to inspire all ages, but the standard is the same.

“You can’t underestimate children,” says Erdman.

On the surface, his songs are simple.

But let them sink in and they become deeply poetic and meaningful.

Erdman uses turn of phrase, alliteration and poetic allusion with a melange of pop culture, esoterica and the kitchen sink to create succinct lyrical stanzas. “Every word counts,” says Erdman. Phrases like “shyness is power” and “Today is yesterday tomorrow...or is today tomorrow yesterday” flip reason and, at the least, confuse you, but usually get you thinking about your own life in a more positive way.

Human Lard Dog is looking for a home. Erdman will start pitching to television and cable TV. The exploding web scene is also an appealing option where there’s more creative freedom for Belopio to thrive here on earth.

FOR MORE INFO The Human Lard Dog erdman@gorecords.com www.houseoflard.com

house of lard Get your hands on these Belopian goodies and make life a real dream!

Available online at www.houseoflard.com

B

Fez Heads Silk Screened Art Print $30 Limited Edition of 100 hand-silk-screened prints Signed by artist

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Walter the Monster Canvas Bag $20 Hand silk screened on authentic pigment canvas field bag.

Other colors available.

B

Cat Tee for Tots $12 Hand-silk-screened on American Apparel Ts. Multiple styles and colors available. Sizes 2T, 4T, 6T

B

Dig the Pleasure of Animal Magnets $10 Six 3-inch round, full-back button-style magnets.

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Shyness is Power Tee $15 Hand-silk-screened on American Apparel Ts. In Men’s & Women’s Sizes.

2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 21

HISTORY | VIOLETS

Sweet Violets

BY TOBE CAREY

William Saltford and his brother George brought violet cultivation to Rhinebeck from England in the 1880s. In 1902, George published How to Make Money Growing Violets, which helped popularize the growing sensation.

Soon violet houses were sprouting in backyards and on farms throughout the c o u n t y.

T h e winter b l o om i n g flowers w e r e featured at HarvardYale football games and the National Horse Show. The industry provided a valuable cash crop for local residents and employed over 20% of Rhinebeck’s population.

Violets were the favored flower for Christmas, f o r Va l e n t i n e ’s Day and for Easter. At the height of popularity, more than 400 violet houses dotted the Dutchess County countryside.

The largest “Violet King,” Julius Vander Linden, owned 64 violet houses.

Violet growing was hard work. The flower beds had all their soil removed and replaced each year to prevent pests from overtaking the delicate plants.

Greenhouses had to have their temperature carefully regulated throughout the long winters to prevent the plants from freezing or overheating.

By the early 1900s, Dutchess County was known as the “Violet Belt” and Rhinebeck was the “Buckle on the Belt.” By 1912, millions of blooms were shipped by train from Rhinecliff to cities and towns throughout the Northeast and Midwest.

Champions like Eleanor Roosevelt helped to spark some renewed violet popularity, but the increased costs of heating and hand labor plus competition from other corsage flowers contributed to a continued decline in violet sales.

By the late 1970s the last of the large commercial violet growers closed up shop.

Today, only one row of cultivated Dutchess County violets recalls the glory days of viola odorata.

In Milan, Fred Battenfeld, continues to grow Frey’s Fragrant violets for Valentine’s Day and as delicious culinary additions to salads and cakes. He’s determined to keep alive a small part of a once vibrant Dutchess County History.

These deep purple violets are a reminder of the glorious award-winning blooms like Marie Louise or Swanley White that once made Rhinebeck celebrated as “The Violet Capital of the World.”

Picking was done by hand and required reclining on a wooden bench placed above the violet beds. Bunching and tying the blooms was a precision job and an experienced picker could gather up to 5,000 blooms a day. Children were released from school to help pick at the height of the Easter violet season. By World War I, fashions began to change and fragrant violets lost favor to other available flowers.

In 1927, a scandalous Broadway show, The Captive, involving a plot about violets and 22 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

lesbian lovers, further depressed sales with the general public.

Sweet Violets is a 40-minute documentary film that tells the surprising story of the vibrant industry that once provided a quarter of the commercially grown violets in the United States.

FOR MORE INFO sweetvioletsmovie.com

PHOTO CREDITS - TOP OF STORY: “DUCHESS DE PARME” SEASIDE PLANTS; SNOW COVER: DONALD PITCHER; PICKING: CARL PERUTZ; “STANELY WHITE’: CAROL GROVES; BOTTOM: TOBE CAREY

Violets have a long and celebrated history. Their beauty, fragrance, medicinal, and culinary uses are legendary.

HISTORY | COLONIAL HISTORY

A Tale from the Early History of Upper Delaware County how to handle women knew Most frontier women put nk tu the Cushe a musket, and to repel an g in od use in help the skill to go 1763. in y rt pa ar attacking w

BY JOHN CONWAY

North America was still mostly an uncivilized place in the early 1750s, and while open warfare between the British and the French in their struggle to control the new continent was still a few years away, the growing tension between the two great powers and the unhappiness of the Native American tribes who were being displaced by their settlements made it a hostile place, as well.

While the Upper Delaware River Valley was still a rugged frontier wilderness, eastern Connecticut was becoming overpopulated and farmland there was becoming scarce.

Some of the Connecticut

of purchasing lands elsewhere.

The Susquehanna Company, chartered in 1754, was one such group, consisting of about 600 men who purchased from the Iroquois Confederacy a large tract of land along the Susquehanna River, paying the Natives mostly with whiskey.

Another group, calling itself the Delaware Company, and led by hardy men named Skinner and Thomas and Tyler, consummated with several local Lenape chieftains what became a controversial purchase of a tract of land adjacent to the Susquehanna purchase and running eastward to the Delaware River. By 1757, this group had formed a small settlement on the new property. The place became known as Cushetunk, a close approximation of the Lenape word for the area.

The Lenape at that point had been largely subjugated by the Seneca tribe of the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy, and the Seneca did not believe they had been justly compensated for the land the local chiefs had turned over to the settlers. This merely increased the tensions of the time and added to the uncertainty of the life of the early settlers.

Those tensions notwiththe been one of s ay standing, within a few years w al s garden ha aware, and The colonial at Fort Del s the Delaware Company was on ti on ac ti tr ta ul r at 2013 in cons most popula lp from soliciting additional settlers be made for he ill h w it es w d ad upgr sburg an . ial William is Gillingham through a prospectus that with Colon Pictured: Ir . ce an ss ai en claimed they had established Sullivan R residents three separate communities, who were feeling squeezed out each extending ten miles of their home colony began to along the Delaware River and form companies for the purpose eight miles wide. These new 24 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

communities consisted of thirty cabins, three log houses, a grist mill and a saw mill. Because of the hostile nature of the frontier at the time, in 1761 two separate portions of Cushetunk were surrounded by stockades for protection, and looked every bit as much like forts as they did a peaceful community.

Despite the ongoing French and Indian War, the protection of those fortifications was largely unneeded until the uprising of the Lenape following the death of their elderly sachem and self-proclaimed king, Teedyuscong under mysterious circumstances in April of 1763.

Avenging war parties under the command of Teedyuscong’s son, Captain Bull, swooped through the Wyoming Valley and into the Delaware Valley, attacking every settlement along the way.

The segment of the Cushetunk settlement at Ten Mile River was destroyed, and its 22 or so inhabitants massacred. The warriors then made their way upriver to the other parts of Cushetunk.

The valley had at one time been a revered place where the Lenape had held green-corn dances, dog festivals, and ballgames, and where, according to oral tradition, their sainted chieftain Tammanend, or Tammany, had spent much of his life. Captain Bull had every intention of destroying all of Cushetunk and vanquishing those living there just as he had done downriver, but the stockades made the task a bit more difficult.

As the war party approached what had become known as

Cushetunk’s Lower Fort, located approximately at present day Milanville, PA, settlers caught sight of the marauders and scrambled to gather inside the blockhouse. Two of the men, Moses Thomas and Jedidiah Willis, were killed before they could enter the fortification, and that left only one man, Ezra Witter, in defense of the settlement.

Fortunately for Witter, he had the assistance of a number of strong, capable women, who took up arms as the war party gathered outside.

The women were armed with muskets, and under Witter’s direction fired at the opportune time, killing one of the war party and intimidating the others by convincing them that the stockade was well defended.

The deception proved fortuitous, and the raiding party left without further incident, taking their lone casualty with them.

The Upper Delaware remained a dangerous place for another few decades. One historian has described the area as it existed as late as 1779, when the Revolutionary War Battle of Minisink was fought just north of what is today Barryville, as “a howling wilderness.”

“There was not a wilder, lonelier place on the whole frontier,” Isabel Thompson Kelsay writes in her book, Joseph Brant: Man of Two Worlds, “a place where wolves gathered by night but men were seldom seen.”

Still, the stockades at Cushetunk were never put to the test again.

DRAWING: AN ORIGINAL SKETCH BY JAMES W. BURBANK

quickly became one of the most popular tourist Sullivan Cou nty’s first offic destinations ial county Hist Burbank (in orian James W his buckskins) . founded The in the Upper Museum of C Fort Delawar olonial Histor e y, which open Delaware River ed in 1957.

Valley.

Despite the fact that the Lower Fort was forced to withstand just the one raid, it Today, the Fort is operated by represents an important part Sullivan County’s Division of of the history of the Upper Public Works, and its costumed Delaware, and of Sullivan interpreters narrate tours of the County. Fittingly, that history replicated community while is preserved today in the demonstrating some of the form of the Fort Delaware life skills necessary for survival Museum of Colonial History, on the 18th century frontier. a replica constructed in 1957 Visiting authors, artisans, and at Narrowsburg, just a few re-enactors spin additional miles downriver from the colorful tales of the time, original stockade. The Fort is but none as heartwarming the most enduring legacy of as the one about that day in Sullivan County’s first official 1763 when a small group of historian, James W. Burbank, unheralded heroines helped who spent years researching hold off an avenging Lenape the early European settlements war party, forever changing along the river. He had written the course of Sullivan County extensively about Cushetunk, history. and he was convinced that an authentic replica of the Fort Delaware is open settlement’s stockade would weekends from Memorial lure people to Narrowsburg and Day through the end of June, and Friday through Monday entertain and inform them. during the summer months.

Burbank was a talented artist The Fort also celebrates the and model maker, and he made Fourth of July and has a special meticulous drawings of what schedule and rates for school the place should look like and groups. For more information, how it should be built, right call 845-807-0261 or email down to the fasteners to be fortdelaware@hotmail.com used. He touted the idea far and wide, and interested enough of John Conway has been the his neighbors in investing that Sullivan County Historian for the initial stock offering was more than 20 years, and teaches sold out. He supervised the The History of Sullivan County construction and then donned at SUNY-Sullivan. Among his a buckskin outfit and coonskin main areas of interest are Colonial cap, and toting a flintlock, America, the Declaration of manned the fort as its chief Independence and the U.S. docent, enlisting his daughter Constitution, and the early and a number of townspeople settlement of the Upper Delaware to help out. Fort Delaware River Valley.

2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 25

ART | CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN

Carolee Schneemann

ART WITHOUT

LIMITATIONS 26 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

ART | CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN

“

“

A woman artist gets taken seriously when she’s no longer a sexual fantasy for men who curate.

BY SUSAN BARNETT

“I

have to confess, I’ve always been a little intimidated by Carolee.”

That was my first introduction to Carolee Schneemann, an artist whose work has challenged taboos and tweaked convention for more than forty years. My friend was offering to introduce me to an artist she’s known since she was a little girl.

TOP LEFT: IMAGE FROM EYE BODY (1963) PHOTO: ERRO

Schneemann has been called the Glamazon of the Art World.

She’s a fearless explorer of what lies behind, beneath and beyond society’s rules, particularly rules that dictate what is “acceptable” for women.

Starting with teachers who told her that a woman couldn’t be successful as an artist, to paintings, performance art, photographs and film that expressed exactly what she wanted to express without apology, to critical acclaim and an honored place in museum collections, Carolee Schneemann has been a force of nature. She doesn’t just defy convention; she refuses to acknowledge its authority.

“I have never set out to intentionally shock anyone,” she told me from her home near New Paltz. “I was always surprised when the work was censored or considered pornographic.”

Within a week, I’d received

a holiday picture from Schneemann via email. She gazed at me, nude and smiling, half-buried in the snow. Not even Mother Nature scares her.

Schneemann’s work is now considered classic and trendsetting. Her explorations of visual traditions, taboos and the relationship of the individual body to social bodies in still photos, paintings, collages and film have been exhibited at the New York Museum of Modern Art, the London National Film Theatre, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal.

In 2012, Schneemann was the subject of the documentary Breaking the Frame. Described as a film weaving Schneemann art with her views on sexuality, feminism, gender and society, Schneemann calls it “beautiful.”

“It’s not a literal narrative. The camera has its own dynamic,” she continued.

“Marielle Nitoslawska, who directed and wrote it, follows the surge of work energy. There’s a creative unraveling - there’s nothing superficial or invented. It’s a very unusual film.”

A film about Carolee Schneemann would have to be unusual to do her justice. This is an artist who used her body to challenge society’s expectations, suspending her naked body

above a massive canvas as she painted in “Up To And Including Her Limits,” making her body part of a collage in “Eye Body,” and, most famously (and perhaps notoriously), peeling off her clothes in front of an audience and reading a feminist scroll which she slowly pulled from her vagina in a work she called “Interior Scroll.”

Schneemann once told me she considered Interior Scroll to be her “problem child.”

“It’s the one work everyone knows and the one everyone talks about.”

But Schneemann has a lifetime’s worth of challenging artwork.

After 9-11, she created “Terminal Velocity”, a collage of computerenhanced images of people falling from the World Trade Center that day. Schneemann described it as a memorial. It was described by an NPR affiliate in Seattle as “pushing at the edge of decorum.” It is also brutally sad and makes the tragedy very personal in a way nothing else could.

Schneemann said when the work was sent to Montreal to be exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art a few years ago, she had the opportunity to see “Terminal Velocity”in a new way. Nitoslawska was filming as the installation was being set up.

“Seeing those falling bodies 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 27

ART | CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN

with the art handlers carefully wrapping them with translucent paper was just exquisite. And appropriately disturbing. Seeing that image as it fades – I didn’t know it would work brilliantly but Marielle has an astonishing eye.”

complexity of her conceptions weren’t appreciated. Yoko’s work and my work in the sixties were shocking then. Now it’s studied in art schools. A woman artist gets taken seriously when she’s not longer a sexual fantasy for men who curate.”

Schneemann said that exhibits are finally catching up with the fullness of her work.

She paused.

“I was initially known for feminism and body art in terms of photography, and I became well known at the expense of the fuller body of work.”

In 2012, Schneemann was one of the recipients of the Yoko Ono Lennon Courage for the Arts awards.

Work that was dismissed as pornographic when she was a young woman is now recognized as cutting edge art, something she said tends to be true for women artists as they age.

When I mentioned the growing respect for Yoko Ono as an artist, Schneemann agreed.

“Yoko is a dear friend. But the

“It’s just stupid.”

Schneemann said she always had the appreciation of scholars and researchers, but “the economic structures were frightened of the work.”

Her film Fuses is a perfect example. Completed in 1967, it is described as Schneemann’s exploration of whether a woman’s film of her own sexuality was different from pornography and classical art. Schneemann herself describes it as a film of the experience of heterosexual pleasure.

5 28 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

Despite being a feminist

“There’s this angry male voice giving me instructions in my dreams. I will begin a work, and then I’ll wake with this instruction and insight – almost meta-instructions. Do that, I’ll hear. And his advice is always perfect.” Then she laughed. “But he’s so impatient!”

Schneemann said her first encounter with the voice was after inheriting her home.

“I would dream these very explicit, very specific instructions.

He told me to go out the front door, turn right, then take a hammer and hit at the cement.

We would, I was told, find a golden stone.”

“It was right there,” Schneemann recalled. “It was so weird and so exacting.”

Schneemann and Tenney followed the instructions and discovered the house was an old stone home, which had been covered with cement. Further instructions revealed chestnut floors and even led to a specific spot where a carefully aimed hammer revealed chestnut beams in the ceiling.

Her home, she said, has been the source of her work, giving her a sense of being embraced by history and offering her a sense of deep continuity.

“All of my work has been done here,” she said. When asked who she would be if she hadn’t moved to her house in the 60s, she paused. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. The house is the muse – it’s a partner.”

She’s currently constructing a large, multi-part sculpture called “Flange 6rpm.” She described it as motorized sculptures of cast aluminum with computercontrolled motions.

Though her work has not made her independently wealthy, she deliberately avoids looking for

support that might somehow inhibit her creative expression.

“It’s costly to do, but I have to do it. It’s always a challenge to have enough funds to follow an interior artistic aesthetic. I never could have done what I do if I was part of a crowd funding platform like Kickstarter.”

Schneemann may travel the world, but she’s also a part of the local art scene. She’s lectured and exhibited at the Woodstock Artists Association and an extensive exhibit of her work began its tour at the Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz. She’s had recent exhibits at MOMA, in Vienna, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

She travels, writes and continues to create. Her work and her influence are studied in books and in art schools. Carolee Schneemann’s roots, and her work, are made here in the Hudson Valley.

“I’m just so happy when I can be home here with my very thoughtful companion cat.”

Although Schneemann is a woman with an impressive career and an imposing presence, when she talks about her life at home, you can almost hear her purr.

FOR MORE INFO

www.caroleeschneemann.com

Susan Barnett is a writer and journalist who grew up in Woodstock and came back home in 2007. She is the author of The View From Outside, a collection of short stories published by Hen House Press. She is the producer and host of the syndicated radio show 51% The Women’s Perspective, a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. She is a licensed real estate salesperson with Freestyle Realty in Woodstock and lives in West Hurley.

PHOTO CREDITS - FLANGE 6RPM: HELENA KAMINSKI; INTERIOR SCROLL: ANTHONY MCCALL; UP TO AND INCLUDING HER LIMITS: SHELLEY FARKAS DAVIS

She filmed h e r s e l f making love with her longterm partner, James Tenney, then stained, burned and drew on the film, manipulating the film speed and juxtaposing it with photographs of seasons at her Ulster C o u n t y home. Fuses won a Cannes Film Festival Special Jury Selection prize in 1969.

icon, Schneemann surprisingly credits much of her inspiration to an internal male voice.

ART | CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN

1 3

2

1

2

3 4 5

Flange 6rpm (2011) Poured aluminum motorized sculptures with projection

Terminal Velocity (2001) Black and white computer scans from newspapers

Interior Scroll (1975) Detail of Giclee Archival Print - Vision Archive 2005

4

Up To And Including Her Limits (1973-76) Stills from Fuses (1964-67) Self-shot 16mm film, color, silent, 22 minutes

Image from Eye Body (1963) On previous page 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 29

NEIGHBORS Events & happenings around the Catskill Mountains & Hudson Valley MARCH 2013

3 Beekman Street, Beacon.

Dutchess County.

2 Parsifal

2 Catskills Film Festival

Jonas Kaufmann stars in the title role of the innocent who finds wisdom in François Girard’s new vision for Wagner’s final masterpiece. His fellow Wagnerian luminaries include Katarina Dalayman as the mysterious Kundry, Peter Mattei as the ailing Amfortas, Evgeny Nikitin as the wicked Klingsor, and Ren&eacut; Pape as the noble knight Gurnemanz.

Daniele Gatti conducts. $25.

Starts at 1pm. Time and Space Limited, 434 Columbia Street, Hudson. Columbia County.

2 Public Tour

Saturday. 1pm. Tours are free with admission. Reservations are not necessary but can be made in person at the admissions desk. Dia:Beacon,

Presented by Masters on Main Street. Six hours of cinematic surprises with selections by filmmakers from the Hudson Valley and the world: new features and documentaries, animated shorts, experimental films, early silent films of the Catskills and more. Following the screenings, join us for a 6:30pm Main Street tour of The Glow Show, a trail of light-based works by Hudson Valley artists.

Performance and reception following. Noon-10pm. $5 suggested donation. Union Mills Building, 341 Main Street, Catskill. Greene County.

3 Phantom of the Opera

Lon Chaney gives a tour de force performance and triumph of makeup in this 1925 telling

30 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

of Gaston Leroux’s novel. A deformed musical genius takes a young opera singer under his tutelage and makes her a star.

The Phantom falls in love with the singer, which, despite all his efforts, remains unrequited. $7.00. 2pm. 845-658-8989.

Rosendale Theatre, Rosendale.

Ulster County.

3 Ice Skating

Last day to 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. 845-7862701. Sessions: Fri: 8-9:30pm, Sat : 10-11:30am, 12-1:30pm, 2-3:30pm, 4-5:30pm, 6-7:30pm, 8-9:30pm., Sun: 10-11:30am, 12-1:30pm, 2-3:30pm, 4-5:30pm, 6-7:30pm. Bear Mountain

State Park, Route 9W, Bear Mountain. Orange County.

Dutchess County.

8 Adam Ezra Group

8pm door / 9pm show. $10 general admission.”Album of the Year” - Ragtop Angel - 2012 New England Music Awards.

“Song of the Year” - Takin’ Off - 2012 New England Music Awards.

(845) 679-4406.

Bearsville Theater, 291 Tinker St., Woodstock. Ulster County.

The Ralph Hartman Race is open to all physically and mentally challenged skiers and snowboarders who want to try racing, or experienced racers who want to gain more experience. Windham Mountain, Clarence D. Lane Road, Windham.

Greene County.

8 Elmo’s Super Heroes

9 Celtic Heels Irish Dance

Sesame Street Live is coming to the MHCC on March 8-10th. Tickets are on sale at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center Box Office, all Ticketmaster locations, and ticketmaster. com, or charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. $14.50 and up. 845-454-5800. Mid Hudson Civic Center, 14 Civic Center Plaza, Poughkeepsie.

9 Hartman Cup

Join the Celtic Heels Irish Dance troupe as they skip on the Rhinebeck Center for Performing Arts’s stage and perform choreographed jigs, reels, and hornpipes. $9, $7 children. 845-8763080. Rhinebeck Center for Performing Arts, 661 Rte. 308, Rhinebeck. Dutchess County.

10 String Competition

The annual Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition is known as a launching pad for classical music careers; more than a handful of previous winners have gone on to become members of highly regarded ensembles. Three players vie for the competition’s $3,000 first prize. Hear the three finalists for this year’s laurels perform in recital at Vassar College’s Skinner Hall, for free, and meet them afterwards at a post-concert reception.

845-473-2072. Skinner Hall, 124 Raymond Ave., Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County.

16 Francesca Da Riminia

Zandonai’s compelling opera, inspired by an episode from Dante’s Inferno, returns in the Met’s ravishingly beautiful production, last seen in 1986. Dramatic soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek and tenor Marcello Giordani are the doomed lovers. Marco Armiliato conducts. $25. Starts at 1pm. Time and Space Limited, 434 Columbia Street, Hudson. Columbia County.

16 Philharmonic

The third concert of the HVP’s season, entitled “Cliburn Gold,” features Van Cliburn Competition gold medalist Haochen Zhang, who is the soloist for Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 23.

Beethoven’s Fidelio Overture and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony are also on the bill. 845-473-2072. Bardavon Opera House, 35 Market St., Poughkeepsie. Dutchess County.

16 Discussions

Conceptual artist Ian Wilson will host an ongoing series of his signature Discussions on the topic of “The Pure Awareness of the Absolute.” Neither recorded nor transcribed, these Discussions continue Wilson’s fourdecade project of creating ephemeral, oral artworks that exist only within the duration of a conversation. For reservations, call 845.440.0100 x 45. Dia:Beacon, 3 Beekman Street, Beacon. Dutchess County.

23 Parrothead Spring Fling

The beach festival will present Jimmy and the Parrots (A Jimmy Buffet cover band), fun at the tiki bar, pond skimming and much more. 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. Windham Mountain, Clarence D. Lane Road, Windham.

Greene County.

23 Exhibit

“Symmetries,” Ellen Cibula paintings and drawings, sponsored and presented by Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Alliance Gallery, through April 13. Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10am - 4pm. Free. 845-252-7576.

Opening reception: Saturday, March 23, 2-4pm. Delaware Arts Center, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg, Sullivan County.

30 The Legend of King Arthur

The Hampstead Stage Company brings this mythical medieval man to life as he and Merlin battle evil sorceresses and knights while on their quest to remove the sword from the stone. $9, $7 children. 845-876-3080. Rhinebeck

Center for Performing Arts, 661 Rte. 308, Rhinebeck. Dutchess County.

APRIL 2013 1 Black Swan Sailing

Black Swan sailing offers a two and a half hour cruise any time of day, a sunset cruise, a day cruise or a two-day getaway on the Hudson River aboard their 36’ Catalina Sailboat. Open April through October, offering sails all day on the weekends and evenings during the week. Cruises are limited to six guests. Call today to book your sail.

845-542-SAIL. $50-$65 per person.

Abeel Street, Kingston. Ulster County.

7 Chamber Music

Jennifer Koh, violin & Benjamin Hochman, piano. 2013 Chamber Music Series. Event Gallery. 3pm Show Time. Includes Post-concert “Meet the Musicians”. $42.50 advance; $15.00 students. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Hurd Rd., Bethel. Sullivan County.

13 Exhibit

“CAS Sullivan County High School Art Show” featuring 300 pieces of student work in 10 media categories, sponsored by Catskill Art Society.

Through May 5. Gallery hours: Thursday - Saturday, 11am – 6pm, Sunday, 11am - 3pm, Monday 11am6pm Free. Information: 436-4227.

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 13, 2-4pm. Delaware Arts Center, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg, Sullivan County.

16 Concert

“Solas,” a Celtic rock band, sponsored and presented by Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, 8pm, Event Gallery, 200 Hurd Road, Bethel, NY. Admission: $47.50 ($42.50 advance). 800745-3000. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Hurd Rd., Bethel. Sullivan County.

19 Facets

Madelon Jones mixed media, sponsored and presented by Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Alliance Gallery, Delaware Arts Center, through May 11. Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10am - 4pm. Free. 845-252-7576.

Opening reception: Friday, April 19, 7-9pm. Delaware Arts Center, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg, Sullivan County.

27 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 2013 5 Benefit

“High Fashion - High Tea,” a 4-course tea and fashion show organized by designer Pam Mayer of Enochian to benefit Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, 2 p.m., Krause Recital Hall. Admission: $25 (advance reservations requested).

Information: 845-252-7576.

Delaware Arts Center, 37 Main Street, 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 31

Narrowsburg, Sullivan County.

5 “Sundays With Friends”

Karen Gomyo, violin & Dina Vainshtein, piano. 2013 Chamber Music Series.

Event Gallery. 3pm Show Time.

Includes Post-concert “Meet the Musicians”. $42.50 advance; $15.00 students. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Hurd Rd., Bethel. Sullivan County.

9 Rat Pack Show

Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack Show features performers who impersonate Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Joey Bishop, complete with the tunes and hijinks for which the foursome is famous. 7:30pm. $24.50$49.50.

518-465-3334.

Palace Theatre, 19 Clinton Ave., Albany.

Albany County.

11 Conservatory Orchestra

Igor Stravinsky: Feu d’Artifice, Op. 4.

Sergey Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19, Shmuel Ashkenasi, violin. Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93. Conducted

by Leon Botstein, music director.

Suggested donation: $20 orchestra seating; $15 parterre/first balcony.

Free to the Bard community with ID. Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson.

Dutchess County.

12 Tulip Festival

Tulip Festival & Mother’s Day Celebration. Free admission to Festival; $25 adult & $13 children 6-12 for Mother’s Day brunch. 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. 845-210-1600. Honor’s

Haven Resort & Spa, 1195 Arrowhead Rd., Ellenville, Sullivan County.

18 Poetry

“River Rocks Poetry Jamboree,” celebrating 20 years of poetry with the Upper Delaware Writers Collective, readings, panel discussion, student awards, guest poet Salita Bryant, 1-9pm. Tusten Theatre, 210 Bridge Street, Krause Recital Hall at Delaware Arts Center, and other venues in Narrowsburg. Sullivan County.

25 East Durham Irish Festival

Annually every Memorial Day Weekend. Presenting new and fresh entertainment direct from Ireland.

2267 Rte. 145, East Durham. Greene County.

26 One Act Showcase

Live Performance: Sullivan County Dramatic Workshop every week on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday until May 26. 845-436-5336. Rivoli Theatre.

5243 Main St., South Fallsburg.

Sullivan County.

26 Struck - NACL Theatre 13th Season

NACL Theatre presents ‘Struck.’ May 26 to 28 at 7 pm. May 31 & Saturday, June 1 at 7 pm. June 2 at 4 pm.110 Highland Lake Rd., Highland Lake, NY 12743. www.nacl.org. Sullivan County.

Want to be listed?

Submit to neighbors@greendoormag. com by May 1, 2013 or anytime for inclusion into our digital Neighbors calendar at greendoormag.com/ neighbors.php

The Bookshelf: Spring Reading

Before You Were Born

Under the North Light

by Marguerite Rocholl

The Life and Work of Maud and Miska Petersham

This is one of those memoirs that hits you afterwards. Weeks later you will be thinking about Rocholl’s upbringing and three generations of family who settled on a small island in a New York City bay called Broad Channel. When her grandparents settled on the island there were only one hundred inhabitants.

In some ways, it was a harder life, faced with the harsh elements and pioneering inconvenience. But also it was simpler than life in nearby Manhattan. Rocholl remembers a childhood of outdoor adventure in bare feet by the bay. Her keen curiosity as a child witnessed her grandfather’s bootlegging adventures from his runner boat during prohibition and her father’s career as a New York Daily News photographer who rubbed shoulders with the who’s who of the times. And her strong relationships with her family were the glue of society. While the book will surely be enjoyed by those who grew up on or near Broad Channel, the memoir reminds us all of our childhood; it appeared a simpler time, the passage of familial life seen through the eyes of nostalgia, but was not without complexity. Written for her children, Rocholl translates some of what was lost from her childhood and reminds us to find it again.

FOR MORE INFO

Marguerite Rocholl has lived in the Catskills for the past fifteen years. Before You Were Born is available at Amazon.com and on Kindle.

32 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

by Lawrence Webster Maud and Miska Petersham spent forty years working across from each other in their north-facing Woodstock studio as they illustrated more than one hundred children’s book. Webster tells how their disparate beginnings as Maud, a Yankee, and Miska, a Hungarian immigrant, met in 1912 at the New York Art Institute, married and became award-winning and influential illustrators during the golden age of children’s books. During the 1940s, the Petershams won Caldecott Honors for An American ABC and The Rooster Crows. The book has many colorful illustrations interspersed with a story that reflects the deep collaboration of a husband and wife in the studio as well as in life. In an age where more people are working remotely and setting up shop in the midst of their home, the Petershams are an enduring example of the integration of life and work instead of its modern delineation.

This is a truly beautiful book to look at, read and hold; it’s the reason books are still printed.

FOR MORE INFO Woodstock Arts P.O. Box 1342 Woodstock, NY 12498 www.woodstockarts.com

WOODSHED | STU-STU-STUDIO

Music in Unexpected Places Part 2

BY JAMES BEAUDREAU

Read Part 1: www.greendoormag.com/fall2012_woodshed.php

Last time, a couple issues ago, we took a look at music recorded outside the confines of the professional recording studio – that is, music caught out in the wild. The stops on that first tour were a record store, a museum, a radio DJ booth, and a general store. This time we’re going domestic. You might say that taking a look at a bunch of recordings in this way is just an excuse to call attention to some interesting tracks that are otherwise utterly unrelated. But then again, maybe there’s something to be gained by asking if some music can only be captured on the fly. For example…

The sound of the album is very good; it doesn’t at all sound like it was made in a small room with lots of furniture and bric-a-brac. It could be a studio recording except, perhaps, for the fact that there’s definitely some magic in the performance. Jansch’s relaxation is apparent, despite the presence of the recording gear, engineers, and film crew. If folk rock was the combination of electricity and traditional gather-around-the-piano performance, this was the most natural place to capture it.

At Home in Italy (1974)

I hope you won’t expect classical decorum from the Bahaman steel-string guitarist Joseph Spence. His performances are raw and string-snapping, and he growls along with his guitar as if he needs to intimidate the sound out of it. But a beautiful and intricate sound it is; in fact, Spence is one of the most astounding solo folk guitarists you’ll ever hear.

Home recording. DIY (do-it-yourself ). Lo-fi. Like most developments in the music industry, DIY followed advances in technology. In 1974, the state of the art for the home recordist was a portable reel-to-reel four track, like the one used by Franco Falsini, the auteur of the group Sensations’ Fix. Generally considered part of the Italian progressive rock scene, Falsini was at the time really more of a free spirit, experimenting with ambient, rock, pop, and electronic music.

His disregard of convention was reflected in his methods, too. Many – perhaps most – home recordists do it for financial reasons, though with Falsini it was an aesthetic choice. He actually had a budget from his record company but chose to record himself.

The resulting music (recently reissued as Music Is Painting in the Air 1974-1977 on the RVNG label) is strangely out of time.

The less-than-studio fidelity puts one in mind of a later era, the ‘80s and ‘90s, when DIY recording became much more common with the development of the four-track cassette recorder. The musical style is out of step with the “symphonic” progressive rock and fusion that was prominent in Italy at the time. Essentially, left to his own devices, Falsini was able to dream up a very personal rock music – homemade and futuristic at the same time – that still sounds fresh today.

In the English Countryside (1974) The late Scottish guitarist Bert Jansch released a very English folk rock album in 1974 that was called, oddly enough, L.A. Turnaround.

Despite the title and the pedal steel that haunts the songs, the aesthetic isn’t American; it’s English countryside through and through. Not so incidentally, that’s where most of the album was recorded.

The 70s were the days of “mobile studios” – trucks crammed with recording gear – which would be parked outside whatever mansion rock royalty had rented for the summer. In the case of L.A. Turnaround, the location was Luxford House in Sussex, the quintessential English country manor. As you can see in the short documentary amended to the 2009 CD version of the album (issued on Drag City Records), Jansch and friends look very much at home among the diamond-pane windows, overstuffed chairs, fireplace and wood paneling.

On a Porch in the Bahamas (1958)

His classic 1958 recordings were originally issued on the Folkways album Music of the Bahamas, Vol. 1: Bahamian Folk Guitar (now available on CD from Smithsonian Folkways). They were made by writers and researchers Samuel Charters and Ann Danberg, who were on a search for traditional Bahaman folk music.

Charters and Danberg came upon Spence entertaining workers on a house construction site.

(Spence himself regularly worked as a stonemason – not the easiest job on the hands). When the recordists heard him, then saw him, they continued to look around because they assumed that there was more than one guitarist playing.

The pair set up their recording equipment on the porch of a nearby house and captured Spence at his best. Nine tunes were recorded, all traditional except for “Coming In On a Wing and a Prayer,” a number one hit for The Song Spinners in 1943. A master musician like Spence could likely have produced as great a performance in a recording studio or anywhere else. But as it happens these nine tracks, widely considered the greatest recordings of his career, were captured in an environment where Spence was totally comfortable; entertaining and passing the time as he might have on any other day.

The easy virtuosity, the noises in the environment, and the guitarist’s laughter after the songs add that much more to the experience for us, listening so many years later. It’s the context of the music that we’re hearing – behind, around and through the performance – cradling the art like an invisible, natural scaffold.

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 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 33

w

hat is word-ofm o u t h marketing?

Word of m o u t h marketing is an unpaid form of promotion – oral or written – in which satisfied customers tell other people how much they like a business, product, service, or event.

Why word of mouth over other forms of marketing?

According to Nielsen’s 2011 Global Trust in Advertisements Report, 92% of respondents globally say they trust recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising, closely followed by online consumer reviews.

Additionally, the cost of word of mouth marketing is significantly lower than any other form of earned or paid media.

So social media spreads the word?

Social media is a tactic 34 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

SOCIAL PRINT | WORD OF MOUTH

mum’s not the word An interview with Large Media’s social butterfly David Binkowski. and can be an accelerator of positive and negative word of mouth. It is one component of the 5 basic steps to a WOM campaign, which would start with research/ influencer identification, then creating a campaign/ something to talk about.

The next step would be to create tools that make it easier to share which would include utilization of social media channels, followed by engagement and measurement.

Is an Influencer about “change”?

then

Influencers are connected people who seek out information and share it to their networks. It could be a PTA mom, a celebrity, a journalist, a blogger, the cashier at Peck’s. I’m a firm believer in offline influence being more powerful than online however given the proliferation of publishing/ content online you have to include online folks.

I’m just skeptical that they can move the needle the way truly connected offline people can. You see it from time to time with philanthropy/causes;

typically instances where there’s an insight and idea that resonate with a target audience.

I’m inspired by the diversity of your influencers and your belief in the enduring power of human connections.

These influencers are “bridges” then that have the trust of their network to deliver otherwise foreign information.

Are empowerment and ownership of an idea crucial to its success?

That’s correct. Social media obviously helps because you can connect with people around passion points and topics (see: fracking.)

FOR MORE INFO www.getlargemedia.com David Binkowski is the founder and Managing Partner of Large Media, a Sullivan County-based word of mouth, digital and social media agency. David and his family relocated from the New York City area after spending several years working on global and national accounts, providing digital, social media and word of mouth marketing leadership to his clients and teams.

2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 35

LOCAVORE | ROOT N ROOST FARM

Home Grown

BY JENNIFER DESROCHERS PHOTOS BY KATE TRENNERY

T

here are those who have jumped on the green, organic gardening and locally grown bandwagon. Cheyenne Miller and Sean Zigmund are not among them. The owners of Root N Roost Farm located in White Sulphur Springs have come upon responsible farming through lifelong dedication to that practice. It can be seen in every aspect of their small two-acre farm. From chicken coops created out of cast off pallets to fence posts made out of tree limbs that were cut from a neighbor’s overgrown tree.

What makes Root N Roost unique is that its approach is 180 degrees different from conventional commercial farming. They aim to create a high quality sustainable product with the smallest footprint possible. There are no tractors or roto-tillers here. The farm runs on animal and human labor. Land is prepared for growing by first placing chickens and ducks on it, who forage and naturally fertilize. After a few weeks a pig enclosure using reclaimed pallets is created. The pigs then turn over and dig up the ground on their own. Finally, a cover crop is planted. Depending on the needs of the soil, plants like rapeseed are planted to break up hard clay. Field pea, a legume, is often planted to add nitrogen to the soil naturally. Then when they are ready to plant a crop the cover crop is cut, not pulled out. By keeping the root system in the ground it aerates and releases the nitrogen into the ground.

All seeds used at Root N Roost are certified organic. Topsoil is composted cow manure mixed with their own compost of farm byproducts broken down by red wiggler worms. Plants are fertilized using compost teas and fish emulsion.

Pests are deterred with a garlic and cayenne pepper spray or beer. According to Cheyenne, “If the conditions are perfect for pests you are not making them perfect for plants.” The emphasis remains on keeping the soil healthy, as ultimately that will create a healthy plant.

Cheyenne runs the day-to-day on the farm. She manages the interns, makes the lists, mans the small roadside farmstand and fields the phone calls. It is more than full time, she explains. It is lifetime. During the busy growing

CONTINUED ON PAGE 38 36 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

PHOTOS: KATE TRENNERY

Root N Roost Farm’s Sean Zigmund is keeping his roots local.

2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 37

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE season she gets one day off with no interns. Drained, she needs escape, and for her that means time in the garden alone. No one to ask her questions, hands busy on her own.

She hails from New Zealand, brought to the Sullivan County hills as an intern for a farm in the western part of the county. She interned for seven months in 2009 before returning to her country, only to miss the work and ingenuity taking place here so she returned.

Sean is a native to Sullivan County. The farm is actually the backyard of his childhood home. This love of earth is nothing new to Sean. A Liberty High School graduate, he actually started an environmental club his senior year entitled HOPE, Help Out Planet Earth, in the early 90s.

The Iraq war was happening, ice caps were melting and everyone was talking about greenhouse gas emissions.

Sean says he was waiting then for people to take action on a small and large scale, and a decade later he was still waiting.

He was residing in the Burlington, VT area with a little garden and raising a few animals when in 2003 he felt the desire to farm. He got involved with two farms, as an intern at one and as a volunteer in another learning about permaculture. In the spring of 2008 he decided to travel and work part-time, telecommuting while WWOOFing.

WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities On Farming and Sean ended up working and learning at eight different places. Eventually he went back to his job in Vermont full-time, but he says he knew almost immediately it was the wrong thing. He came back to Sullivan County and ended up meeting Cheyenne when they worked together at the same farm.

They decided in March of 2011 to start the Root N Roost Farm. The summer of 2012 brought the second growing season and the first offerings of their CSA, Community Supported Agriculture. Families, individuals or businesses can purchase a full or half share and receive a selection of produce weekly, as well as a discount on eggs.

The first year they had 20 CSA shares available and they will be adding an additional five this coming year. Besides the produce and herbs from the farm, they also now have free range meat and eggs from the ducks and chickens, as well as pig meat.

While Cheyenne operates the farm, Sean still works a day job. He works locally full-time in IT, but hopes to leave the position in three years time as the farm matures.

Sean states that their vision is to “be a steward of the earth instead of an abuser and user.� They hope to continue growing, building and teaching their vision.

FOR MORE INFO Root N Roost Farm 64 Mineral Springs Road White Sulphur Springs, NY www.rootnroost.com Jennifer Desrochers is a freelance writer, and blogs at www.

MommaDandDaBoyz.net. She is a Sullivan County native and continues to reside there with her New England transplant husband and four sons.

38 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

RECIPE | CHICKEN SOUP

Chicken soup.

Two modest words, three syllables, yet yielding 75,200,000 results in a 0.24 second internet search.

More than any other food I can think of, there is something both universal and incredibly personal about chicken soup. It seems each culture, right down to each family, has its own history, relationship to the soup, and a recipe that makes their own perfect pot.

For me those two words conjure up memories as varied as Google. I can taste the luscious and bright lemon chicken soup my parents would make for me when I was sick. I can feel the sweat on my upper lip and eyelids as I picture the crimson, fiery soup, with a chicken toe and chocolatehued cubes of congealed poultry blood, I shared on my honeymoon in Beijing. I remember nearly jumping out of my chair from my first slurp of a perfect sopa de tortilla, with crumbled charred pasilla chiles, in a cramped neighborhood gem in south Harlem. I recall marveling at the staggeringly pure chicken flavor in my first successful bowl of chicken consommé made in my classical French culinary school. And I think of the warm and comforting spoonful after spoonful shared with me the first time I met my future mother-in-law.

Heritage Simmering on the Stove

BY CATIE BAUMER SCHWALB pitchforkdiaries.com

This time of year, where winter is struggling to thaw into spring, is my favorite for chicken soup. It is warming and lighter than the heavy hearty stews of the much colder months. Chicken soup is a regular at my family’s Easter celebration, and probably the most revered recipe on my in-law’s Passover table. And with Easter and Passover frequently falling on the same weekend, this year included, it is a way to start the meal that is loved by our blended family.

PHOTOS: CATIE BAUMER SCHWALB

The chef and gardener in me loves that this soup uses sweet carrots, parsnips and onions, which are all still available from our local farmers. It also makes phenomenal use of the entire chicken; putting the bones, meat and, if you can get them, feet and neck to excellent use. Nothing is wasted. Use more of the chicken parts and the richer the resulting soup.

When talking to my husband about his history with chicken soup, he thought a minute, and from the countless bowls he has cooked, shared, and devoured, he thought of his grandmother’s soup. He remembered that when she died he was struck that he’d never again have her chicken soup. Each pot is a reflection of its cook. There is a personal and indefinable flavor profile. Hers was no different, and as much as he tried to replicate it, that exact flavor is gone.

So the recipe to follow is the procedural nuts and bolts, but I encourage you to find your chicken soup. Add a few more parsnips for sweetness? More carrots for a deeper color? Precisely chopped chicken or large torn pieces?

I wonder what my thumbprint is on my chicken soup, which my son will identify with me and miss someday.

What is yours?

RECIPE ON NEXT PAGE 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 39

RECIPE | CHICKEN SOUP

My Chicken Soup Serves about 12 as a first course. Makes about 7 quarts.

One whole fresh chicken, about 4 pounds 2 medium yellow onions, peeled and roughly chopped 3 lbs of carrots 1 lb of celery 1 ½ lbs (about 4 large) parsnips 1 bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley 5 fresh thyme sprigs Place the chicken in a tall heavy-bottomed soup pot.

Add the feet and neck if you are using them. Fill the pot with cold water until covering the chicken by about an inch.

Make sure to use a pot that allows you enough space for the water to be at least three inches from the top rim.

Cover, and bring to a gentle boil on high heat. Watch carefully, and turn the heat down to simmer as soon as it is about to reach a hard boil.

This rush of boiling water will help force impurities from the chicken up to the surface of the water. Skim off any foam or matter that has floated to the top.

In the meantime, peel half of the carrots and cut them into thirds. Do the same with half of the celery. Peel half of the parsnips and cut into similar sized pieces. Once the water has boiled and been skimmed, add these carrots, celery and parsnips to the pot, along with both chopped onions, about a dozen washed parsley stems, the thyme sprigs, bay leaves, whole peppercorns, and two

see all of catie’s past recipes at www.greendoormag.com 40 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

1 tablespoon of whole black peppercorns 2 whole bay leaves Small bunch of fresh dill Salt, to taste Optional, valuable additions: 2-4 chicken feet 1-2 chicken necks

sprigs of dill. Allow the soup to simmer very gently for two hours, skimming frequently as foam or pools of fat form on the top.

After two hours very carefully remove the very hot chicken from the pot, and place it in a large bowl or on a baking sheet. Gently pull it apart to allow it to cool more quickly.

Continue to cook the soup with the vegetables and herbs.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the carcass, discarding the skin, and returning all of the bones to the soup pot, along with any accumulated juices and broth.

Refrigerate the chicken meat, and continue to cook the soup on low, with the bones for another one to two hours.

While the soup is continuing to cook, peel and cut up the remaining carrots, parsnips and celery. Cut into whatever size you prefer for the final product. After the soup has finished simmering, strain everything through a fine strainer, or a colander

lined with a few layers of cheesecloth, into another large pot. Discard the bones, feet, neck, and herbs. The, now very soft, vegetables from this stock can be set aside for another use--a snack, to thicken other soups, or as a mashed side dish.

You can stop the process at this point, cool the broth and continue a day or two later.

When cold, the fat in the broth will rise to the top of the pot and harden, making it easier to remove from the soup.

Return the soup to medium heat, adding the second batch of vegetables, and cooked chicken.

Cook the soup gently until the vegetables are cooked through. Add salt, little by little, tasting as you go. If desired, add a few sprigs of chopped fresh dill and parsley just before serving. The soup can be made up to three days in advance and refrigerated in airtight containers, or frozen for four to six months.

THE GREAT INDOORS | REAL ESTATE

SELLING A DREAM Soaring spaces, sweeping views and off the grid.

BY SUSAN BARNETT

om Miller’s T incredible offgrid house has been for sale for a while now, but just the right buyer hasn’t found it yet.

Miller, better known as “Wahid”, owner of Woodstock Video and former owner of The Wahid Trading Company, didn’t build a cookie cutter McMansion.

His house is the fulfillment of his personal vision.

A final curve in the long driveway reveals a massive barnlike structure just above a brook and a stone wall. It rests snuggled into the meadows that form the cupped palms of the surrounding mountains.

“When I bought this land in 1973,” Wahid told me on a brutally cold January day, “no one thought you could build here.

But I wanted to live totally surrounded by nature.”

Outside, the wind was whipping and the temperature was struggling to get above the single digits.

Inside, it was bright and comfortable.

I entered the house through the garage, a massive area big enough for eight cars and complete with a sink, workshop, utility room and enough space to have a roller skating party.

“I don’t have the heat on in here,” Wahid told me as he padded toward the stairs in his bare feet. “Because the house is built into the hillside, it stays

warm.”

The entire house, nearly nine thousand square feet including the garage, is built for energy efficiency. It is entirely self sufficient, except for the propane fueled radiant heat which augments the passive solar heat.

Upstairs is a breathtaking open concept living area with cedar walls and yards of glass. “I never compromise on anything,” Wahid said. “This is like living in heaven.”

He swept his arm to take in the views from the multi-story windows at either end of the house, overlooking 186 acres of mountainside, meadow and forest.

“Who lives like this?

It’s not about being rich, it’s about living with the elements.”

Wahid, a practicing Sufi, envisioned his home as a space where he could teach, do healing work, host meditation groups and Sufi dancers.

“It takes a certain kind of person to live here,” he admitted. “It’s as close as you can get to living in nature and still be this close to the world.”

The differences are obvious when he leaves his home for a trip to Manhattan.

“First, I’m on a dirt road. My road. Then I hit a two lane road.

Out on Route 28, it turns to four lanes.

Then it’s the Thruway – eight lanes – and just two hours to Manhattan!”

More importantly, just two hours back home again to his own personal nirvana.

Living in this Willow getaway requires some comfort with self-reliance. Wahid watches the solar meter on the wall to keep track of the power his rooftop solar panels are collecting and loading into his backup generator. But with hot water solar panels and two gigantic hot water tanks Wahid said when the sun is shining the hot water is virtually limitless.

When a heavy winter snowstorm isolates him from the world, he fires up his own plow truck, complete with sander, and plows himself out.

“After you live here awhile, you learn how to do it. And all it costs me is a quarter of a tank of gas.”

But that’s his way of living in his natural paradise.

Someone else might choose to simply hire someone to keep the driveway clear.

Wahid’s meticulous attention to detail is evident in every inch of his home, from his carefully arranged kitchen drawers to the two bedrooms with generous closets built at one end of the house, which could be disassembled and moved to wherever they’re wanted as they’re not attached to the structure.

The upstairs loft bedroom enjoys all the light from the fifty-five windows on

the main floor. The owner’s appreciation for uncluttered space is repeated in the master bedroom, where the platform bed frame with storage drawers and matching dressers on the opposite wall are all built in.

The gourmet kitchen with a sunny pantry and a luxurious bathroom complete the home, but the star of this property is the land itself. Although just minutes from the center of Woodstock, there’s a feeling of being very far away from the world indeed.

So why is he selling?

“I never thought I’d say it, but I just don’t want to do this anymore,” Wahid admitted. “I want to travel – go back to India, maybe travel the US doing healing work with people after disasters. I’ve always had adventures, and I think it’s time for me to have adventures again.”

He looked out the windows at the blinding sunshine on the snowfrosted grass, at the mountains which look over his home like friendly giants.

“I mean look – I built my dream. How many people can say they built their dream?”

Interested? Contact Susan Barnett from Freestyle Realty 845-679-2929 Ext. 108 or email mywoodstockhome@ gmail.com

2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 41

INTO THE WOODS | BETHEL WOODS

Lincoln Center in The Woods The new Bethel Woods Chamber Music Series, Sunday With Friends, spearheaded by New York Philharmonic PresidentDirector Zarin Mehta raises the bar, while also providing Sullivan County affordable access to world-renowned artists.

The series is curated by Eileen Moon, Associate Principal Cello of the New York Philharmonic and showcases violinist Jennifer Koh, pianist Jeremy Denk and a farewell concert by Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, to name a few.

It will delight the classical music aficionado as well as the firsttime listener.

Local Listening The center partners with the Shandalee Music Festival to present an intimate piano recital by Allen Yueh and chamber music by three pianists, Claudia Hu, Helen Shen and Doris Lee. A larger scale performance in association with The Bardavon will present Ulster County’s Natalie Merchant and The Hudson Valley Philharmonic in the Pavilion. Maniacal fans will abound.

Bad Asses World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Bluegrass fiddler Stuart Duncan, bassist Edgar Meyer, mandolin player Chris Thile with guest vocalist Aoife O’Donovan will perform their 2011 album Goat Rodeo Sessions, a virtuoso fusion that feels washboard and fiddle. The hickster will crave a stem glass of moonshine.

Like A Rolling Stone

Karen Gomyo Violinist

42 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

Rolling Stone photographer Baron Wolman was on assignment during the 1969 Woodstock Festival and Art Fair. His images were published in Rolling Stone Magazine immediately after the event and quickly became iconic for capturing the spirit of the people instead of the performers. His images helped to solidify the festival as a defining moment of the 1960 and beyond. In 2012, Wolman agreed to donate museum-quality prints of his Woodstock photos to The Museum at Bethel Woods, and this exhibit will showcase 100 of the best.

FOR MORE INFO Help Bethel Woods continue to bring these enriching programs and performances to Sullivan County. www.bethelwoodscenter.org/support.aspx

PHOTO OF JENNIFER KOH: CHAD BATKA, PHOTO OF NATALIE MERCHANT: MARK SELIGER, PHOTO OF YO-YO MA: JEREMY COWART, OTHER PHOTOS: COURTESY OF BETHEL WOODS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE

Bethel Woods Center For The Arts is world-famous for being built on the site of the historic 1969 Woodstock Music & Arts Festival. The Museum at Bethel Woods is dedicated to the legacy of the 1960s and its continuing impact on the world. While it’s a pilgrimage and destination for anyone fascinated by the 1960s, the center continues to broaden its audience and regional appeal with innovative and culturally rich performances. Here are four Green Door picks for the 2013 season:

DON’T MISS THESE PERFORMANCES Sunday, April 07, 2013 “Sundays With Friends” Jennifer Koh, violin & Benjamin Hochman, piano Sunday, May 05, 2013 “Sundays With Friends” Karen Gomyo, violin & Dina Vainshtein, piano Saturday, July 20, 2013 Bethel Woods Presents in association with the Bardavon Natalie Merchant with The Hudson Valley Philharmonic Randall Craig Fleischer, conductor Wednesday, July 24, 2013 “Piano Passions Allen Yueh, solo Presented in Collaboration with Shandelee Music Festival Sunday, July 28, 2013 “Afternoon of Chamber Music” Claudia Hu, piano, Helen Shen, piano, Doris Lee, piano Presented in Collaboration with Shandelee Music Festival April 6–August 18, 2013 On Assignment: Woodstock Photos by Rolling Stone Photographer Baron Wolman Special Exhibition Gallery

Friday, August 16, 2013 Goat Rodeo Yo-Yo Ma Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile with guest vocalist Aoife O’Donovan Sunday, September 29, 2013 “Sundays With Friends” Glenn Dicterow Farewell Concert Sunday, October 06, 2013 “Sundays With Friends” Jeremy Denk, piano Sunday, December 08, 2013 “Sundays With Friends “Lincoln Center Family” Holiday Concert 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 43

WELLNESS | SHOPPING

Shopping Cart Smarts

Choose healthier food for your family and vote with your shopping dollars.

BY JENNIFER MEDLEY

Summers in Ulster County have brought me closer to living a “locavore” life than I’ve ever known. CSA’s, friends’ gardens, farmers markets, organic farm stands. Luckily, our conscientious Hudson Valley growers keep us pretty well stocked year round, but there are times, especially during the hectic school year, when convenience has its own virtues.

I personally need shortcuts to deal with my recurring weekday mantra: <please read in a robot voice> “Must. Keep. Kitchen.

Stocked. For. Dinners. And. Packed. Lunchboxes.”

Enter traditional grocery shopping. It certainly ain’t what it used to be. Our grandparents never needed to scrutinize labels or worry about genetically modified foods or have mistrust of our federal food agencies.

And with our generation being more privy to dietary facts, we have the added ambition of creating a good nutritional base to maximize our family’s energy levels and keep immune systems strong enough to deal with stress and winter bugs.

Here are some shopping tips to help steer better quality foods into your family fridge and cupboards.

PRE-SHOPPING GAME PLAN

As hard as it can be to plan, envision your week ahead. This prevents waste of perishable items and also streamlines your thinking. If an infusion of passion is needed, revisit recipes you’ve bookmarked as “One day…”. Buy the ingredients and the dish will come! Peek into your cabinets to see if you’re running low on staples that make it easy to whip up wholesome meals on the fly.

Take the focus strategy a step 44 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

further: don’t just make a list, make a Mega List with categories (fresh veggies / fresh fruits / dry goods / bulk / freezer / fridge / bakery / etc.) Do you need to make a few stops: supermarket, health food store, farmers market? If so, separate the needs at each destination.

the “real” (perishable) foods.

Frozen produce lies somewhere in the middle. Obviously, fresh is best, but if you need a fruit or veg that’s out of season, frozen can be a good choice. Nutrients are usually retained since picking tends to occur when the produce is ripe and then it Know your kids and plan is immediately frozen. accordingly. It’s important for children to be shopping partners once in a while so they learn to make healthy Deciding to add packaged choices but it may benefit foods into your canvas shopping your concentration (and sense bag brings the responsibility of of peace!) to do most major diligent label reading. Don’t shopping trips alone. Now that believe the product’s marketing you’re finally ready to head out tagline; let the ingredients the door, eat a snack to avoid a speak for themselves. Here are blood sugar crash that will no the top ingredients to beware. doubt result in a shopping cart Trans Fats : “hydrogenated” or full of less desirables. “partially hydrogenated” fats or oils, or margarine and vegetable shortening; these provide a cheap way for manufacturers Whole foods (not to be to increase a product’s shelf life confused with the chain at the expense of heart health. store!) are foods that contain High Fructose Corn Syrup: all their edible parts. They are This ingredient has been linked a product of Mother Nature, to America’s obesity problem not a factory. Think of veggies, and is found even in the least fruits, whole grains, beans/ likely products. Additives: legumes, nuts/seeds, and foods Most common are preservatives, of animal origin that include as colorings, preservatives, fillers, many components as possible monosodium glutamate, or to maximize nutrient intake. chemical sweeteners such Processed and refined foods as aspartame or Splenda. include the obvious (Twinkies!), Salt: The sodium content in along with the maybe not-so- packaged and canned foods are obvious (white rice, white flour often off the charts. A useful or wheat germ, all of which rule of thumb: be cautious are fragmented and miss out of unfamiliar ingredients, on fiber and certain nutrients). particularly those you can’t Even “whole wheat bread” can pronounce. be deceiving if it’s colored with molasses and then dusted with On a label, note the ingredients whole grains to make it look listed first, since those are the wholesome. When in question ones in the largest quantity. A about a particular item, ask bad sign is sugar first (or some yourself if your ancestors likely version of sugar, the word ate such food. If it has a label, usually ends with ‘ose’) in the most likely it’s not a whole ingredient line-up. Cereal boxes food. When shopping in a are a good place to practice label supermarket, the perimeter of reading. Look for a fiber count the store is where you’ll find all of 4g or more per serving; 4g or

LABEL SCRUTINY

KNOW WHAT’S REAL

WHERE TO less for sugars. Remember, just because a product is sold in a health food store doesn’t always mean it is healthy and your kids should eat it!

Canned beans and tomatoes make excellent convenience items, though make sure the cans are free of BPA, a potential hormone disrupter that is often used as a liner of cans or other food packages. Eden Organic uses cans you can trust.

ILLUSTRATIONS: IRALU

ORGANIC, ETC.

We’re all burnt out on the word “organic” these days, and sure, organic produce is priced at a premium. But it is the surest way to avoid inadvertent ingestion of chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and/or insecticides, all of which can build up in the body and potentially cause health problems down the road. Eating organic also decreases the odds that your food is a GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) or is GE (Genetically Engineered).

Organic meats and dairy products are growth hormoneand antibiotic-free, and customarily ensure the animals were raised in a humane manner. Crazy fact: in 1970, one cow produced 9,700 pounds of milk, in 2007 one cow produced 19,000 pounds of milk; curious, no? If your kids eat dairy, it’s a sound investment to choose organic for the hormone factor if nothing else. Organic foods usually rank higher in both nutrients and flavor, and such farming promotes sustainability of the land and a less toxic environment for farm workers.

It is an excellent way to vote with your dollar.

Is organic certification a perfect system? No. There are questionable government loopholes, which force us to

step up with an even more discriminating shopper’s mind. And there are ways the organic system backfires.

As a case in point, recent studies showed that although free range chickens don’t eat feed with chemicals, there’s a chance they could have higher levels of PCB’s if they’ve had the freedom to peck around an impure farm. The safest bet is to know your farmer personally and know his land.

Many Hudson Valley farmers are uncertified by the USDA yet practice more stringent sustainable farming methods than a certified organic farmer.

Also, there’s a fine line of discernment when choosing between a conventional local produce item and one that may have lost many nutrients during shipment across the country.

Peeling and scrubbing is not thought to be useful in reducing conventional residues since pesticides are usually absorbed systemically. To save precious bucks on your produce shopping, determine which conventional crops have the highest/lowest pesticide residues then buy selectively.

The Environmental Working Group (www.foodnews.org) shares “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15” lists. Check their website for periodical updates but here’s a current sneak peak:

GM (begins with “5”, though labeling GM produce is not obligatory at this time). The top GM plant foods are corn, soybeans, and canola, so it’s definitely worth the splurge here to buy organic.

Reports of seafood contamination are evermore gloomy and careful consumption is particularly important for small children or pregnant women. If you’re a seafood lover, Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program provides the best resource for which fish you should or shouldn’t be eating (www.montereybayaquarium. org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx).

Good choices of the moment: U.S.-farmed rainbow trout, wild Alaskan salmon, U.S.farmed tilapia.

Bad choices of the moment: canned tunas, Chilean seabass, red snapper.

With it being trickier than ever to buy animal protein (google “pink slime” for a prime example of a food many folks previously thought to be pure meat or chicken!), it’s worth considering upping your plantbased meals, even if for just one day a week. Both your heart and bank account will thank you. Some healthy plant-based proteins to add to your meals Top 3 Most Contaminated: are sprouted tofu, tempeh, apples, celery, sweet bell beans, lentils, quinoa, plus a peppers. wide array of nuts, seeds and Top 3 Least Contaminated: veggies. Spend thy dollar wisely onions, sweet corn, pineapples. and be healthy!

Now here is a useful tip for the produce section: when you see items that have little stickers the first number in the codes indicate whether it’s conventional/possibly GM (begins with “4”), organic/ non-GM (begins with “9”) or

Jennifer Medley is a freelance writer and holistic nutritionist.

You will likely find her in the aisles of Brooklyn and Ulster County health food stores, scavenging new ideas for her family’s meal repertoire. www.jennifermedley.com

SHOP

Choose a high-integrity merchant that carries a wide array of organic foods & whole food products.

This saves time with less questionable stuff to sift through, plus you help support the smaller guys.

BEACON Beacon Natural Market 348 Main Street (845) 838-1288 www.beaconnaturalmarket.com CALLICOON Callicoon Natural Foods & Juice Bar 33 Lower Main St (845) 887-6008 www.callicoonnatural.com FISHKILL Nature’s Pantry 1545 Route 52 (845) 765-2023 www.naturespantryny.com HIGH FALLS High Falls Food Co-op 1398 Route 213 (845) 687-7262 www.highfallsfoodcoop.com KINGSTON Mother Earth’s Storehouse Kings Mall Route 9W N (845) 336-5541 www.motherearthstorehouse.com LIBERTY Sunflower Health Food Store 71 North Main Street (845) 292-3535 NEWBURGH Nature’s Pantry 142 Route 17K (845) 567-3355 www.naturespantryny.com NEW PALTZ Earth Goods 71 Main Street (845) 255-5858 POUGHKEEPSIE Mother Earth’s Storehouse 1955 South Road (845) 296-1069 www.motherearthstorehouse.com ROSCOE Pepacton Natural Foods 57 Stewart Avenue www.pepactonnaturalfoods.com SAUGERTIES Mother Earth’s Storehouse 249 Main Street (845) 246-9614 www.motherearthstorehouse.com WOODSTOCK Sunflower Natural Foods Market 75 Mill Hill Road (845) 679-5361 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 45

GRINDING 10 years in the making, the Liberty Skate Park ramps up.

BY AKIRA OHISO | PHOTOS BY NICK PIATEK

B

ack in 2002, a group of teens - Miriam Soule, William Soule, Travis Atkins, Tony Randall, Willie Martinez, Chris Castro, Amanda Reyes and Ryan Burns - spent countless hours skateboarding at the Liberty Elementary School. “We had this parking lot, we called it the green top before they put a playground in the middle of it,” says Randall, a short, pierced twenty-four year old with a spiky afro, who the local police used to call “Kingpin” for his contagious angst. Today, the playground is gated and has locks and a list of Orwellian disclaimers.

While other youth activities have ball fields, indoor facilities and adult support, skateboarding, a street sport, has been historically portrayed as a delinquent subculture. “Four or five times a day the cops would roll around and ask us to leave,” says Ryan Burns, a bookish young man who was gibed by the group when he showed up a few minutes late for the interview, out of character for him. Now in his mid-twenties, he has a “real job” and “doesn’t do stairs anymore,” referring to the fracture-inducing trick.

In reaction to the police, the group would often move down the street to the Elks Lodge parking lot, wait for the police to leave and then return to the green top.

Sometimes a fed-up police officer would confiscate a board or two.

In rural Sullivan County, where the hotel heydays loom large over poverty-stricken communities, there isn’t much for alternative kids to do. Out of necessity, they started exploring the environs of Sullivan County.

46 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

“One thing we had was an ample amount of abandoned buildings,” says Randall. Up the road, the once-famed Grossinger’s Hotel, now a decaying ruin with empty pool and spacious lobby, became a safe haven. The group built makeshift obstacles out of borscht belt detritus to grind on. Wood vertical ramps were constructed on-site. Walls were tagged in bright colors.

The Old Commodore Hotel Showroom in Swan Lake was another site for skateboarders to find community and skate in peace. There were occasional territorial confrontations between bikers and skateboarders, but for the most part they got along and were happy to have a place to call their own. “We had a generator in there with flood lights,” says Atkins. “We made the mistake of telling too many people; the local band came and then the cops showed up.”

Sick of constant harassment and exiled to oblivion, they got organized and advocated for a skate park in Liberty. They held fundraisers, raised money and met with local politicians and leaders in the community. As more pressing community initiatives came up, the skate park was shelved. “It was always the first project left by the wayside because it didn’t have a strong lobby,” says Heinrich Strauch, Director of the Liberty Community Development Corporation. Strauch has been an advocate and mentor during most of the decade-long project. As years passed, skaters graduated, worked or went to college. The project lost momentum. Roughly one hundred skaters were part of the project at one time or another.

SHOWROOM, THE COMMODORE HOTEL, SWAN LAKE, NY, 2012 PHOTO: MARISA SCHEINFELD

ENDPAPER | LIBERTY SKATE

The members of the group, now in their early and mid-twenties, made a push in the last year to revive the project and make sure it was completed. They researched skateparks and found Pillar Design, a skate park designer based in Tempe, Arizona, that specializes in community-driven skateparks. Pillar built a skate park in Saugerties, NY, which the group frequented and loved.

The Liberty Skate Park is custom-designed by the group.

There was constant reworking of the design to incorporate many skater styles and needs. “Some skaters are better on a quarter pike or going vert and some people like flat street,” said Martinez. “We tried to make a whole plan that everybody could use and skate.”

PHOTOS: NICK PIATEK; HOTEL PHOTO: MARISA SCHEINFELD

The park will be constructed of high-pressure concrete, which is the gold standard. It is a smoother ride that resists the wear and tear of hardcore skating. There is a communal high point where skaters and bikers can interact.

The park moves in a cyclical route that minimizes collisions.

“It’s designed to keep your flow uninterrupted,” says Burns.

Strauch says the project has all the required checkmarks from various boards. He is confident construction will begin this spring.

The group hopes to be skating by the summer. After a decade of starts and stops, “there is a nowor-never determination,” says Strauch. If completed, Strauch says, quite seriously, “I can die in peace.”

The park will be located at the Elks Lodge parking lot where they used to retreat from the police back in the day. It will be equipped with a streetlight and a surveillance camera. Operation will fall under the rules of the Parks and Recreation Department. The town Department of Maintenance

w i l l provide upkeep.

The group does not foresee any problems. “I’ve traveled to a lot of skate parks and there are never problems; people get along,” says Miriam Soule. “They’re not there to fight, they’re there to have fun.”

While skate parks are often rejected in communities for stereotyped fears of increased crime and drug use, the Liberty Skate Park may be the first project in Liberty to catalyze renewal.

“It’s gonna attract skaters from all over Sullivan County,” says Chris Castro. Skaters will also travel from outside Sullivan County to skate a new park. The group envisions skating competitions, special events and concerts at the park. “People after school will have something to do. It’s not just go home and play video games,” says Burns.

The police department is happy when this happens,” adds Strauch.

“Not only is the park visible, but there is space around it. It’s easy to integrate into the community and it doesn’t impose on other uses.”

For Travis Atkins, the project taught him “patience.” And as for Ryan Burns, he learned that “bureaucracy stinks.” But Chris Castro had the most poignant learning experience: “Now that we’ve done it once, other people will be able to more easily follow on the path we’ve beaten.” In a county where “bureaucracy” and “patience” often lead to inertia, “doing” is the best lesson of all.

And that’s just what this group of skateboarders did. “If you keep at it, eventually it will come together,” says Strauch.

Even if it takes a decade.

HELP BUILD IT! crowdrise.com/libertyteamskate 2013 SPRING | GREEN DOOR 47

ENDPAPER | EQUALITY

Democracy Now

“Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.”

- Barack Obama’s Second Inaugural Address, January 2013

48 GREEN DOOR | SPRING 2013

ART: WILLIAM LANDAU

DEMOCRACY NOW BY WILLIAM LANDAU 16.5” H x 24” W Oil-based ink printed on oil painted canvas, cut then affixed to a wooden board www.wmlandau.com

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