518Life December 2014

A Times Union Publication

DECEMBER 2014

Where Are The Kids?

(Not Playing Outside) pg.36

DECEMBER 2014

New Year's Eve Recipes to Make at Home pg.42 Local Celebs Share Their Favorite Holiday Memories pg.60

518 Life | Living Paleo

518LifeMagazine.com

Chris Churchill takes on the caveman lifestyle pg.24

Living

Paleo

bite-sized lessons A Hearty Holiday Side Round out your next holiday meal with this colorful and hearty side dish that will boost the nutritional value of any meal. Brussels sprouts and other members of the cruciferous family may offer protection against some forms of cancer. They’re also great for your eye health—brussels sprouts are bursting with vitamin C and other crucial eye antioxidants.

Craving more?

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Go to hannaford.com/dietitians for upcoming FREE events and a monthly schedule.

Jean Bottillo-Faulisi, MS, RD Niskayuna Hannaford 3333 Consaul Rd. Jean is available: Mondays, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Select Fridays, 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Select Saturdays, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Cranberry Almond Brussels Sprouts Serves: 6

Marianne Romano,

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes

MPA, RD, CDN

Ingredients: 1 lb. brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved lengthwise 6 Tbsp. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® Deliciously Simple™, melted 1/2 cup dried cranberries 1/2 cup sliced almonds 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

Marianne is available: Tuesdays, 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 425°. Combine all ingredients in large bowl, tossing until evenly coated. Arrange on large baking sheet.

2. Roast 25 minutes or until brussels sprouts are tender and almonds are lightly toasted.

Nutritional Information per serving: Calories 200, Calories from Fat 140, Total Fat 15 g, Saturated Fat 2.5 g, Trans Fat 0 g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Sodium 115 mg, Total Carbs 16 g, Dietary Fiber 4 g, Sugars 8 g, Protein 4 g, Vitamin A 20%, Vitamin C 80%, Calcium 4%, Iron 6% Recipe courtesy of Unilever.

Colonie Hannaford 96 Wolf Rd.

Patty Wukitsch, MS, RD, CDN Delmar Hannaford 180 Delaware Ave. Patty is available: Mondays & Fridays, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Select Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Patty DelmonicoSchardt, MS, RD, CDN

Albany Hannaford 900 Central Ave. Patty is available: Wednesdays, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

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Publisher

George R. Hearst III

Editorial

Janet Reynolds Executive Editor Brianna Snyder Senior Editor

Contributing Writers

John Adamian, Kristi Barlette, Steve Barnes, Chris Churchill, Jennifer Gish, Alistair Highet, Akum Norder, Cari Scribner

Before

Design

After

Tony Pallone Design Director Colleen Ingerto, Emily Jahn Designers

Reveal

Contributing Photographers/Illustrators Paul Buckowski, John Carl D’Annibale, Michael P. Farrell, Vincent Giordano, Alistair Highet, Colleen Ingerto, Emily Jahn, Cindy Schultz, Lori Van Buren

Sales

Kathleen Hallion Vice President, Advertising Tom Eason Manager, Display Advertising Michael-Anne Piccolo Retail Sales Manager Jeff Kiley Magazine Advertising Manager

Before

After

Circulation

Todd Peterson Vice President, Circulation Dan Denault Home Delivery Manager

Renew

Business

Nick Gagliardo Chief Financial Officer

TimesUnion.com

Paul Block Executive Producer 518Life is published monthly. If you are interested in receiving home delivery of 518Life magazine, please call (518) 454-5768 or e-mail magcirculation@timesunion.com.

For advertising information, please call (518) 454-5358.

Before

After

518Life is published by Capital Newspapers and Times Union 645 Albany Shaker Rd., Albany, NY 12212 518.454.5694 0% financing if qualified

Call 383-3300 today to book your Complimentary Consultation: $150 value.

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Visit our State-of-the-Art location!

950 Route 146, Clifton Park www.almedspa.com Michael Salzman, M.D., P.C.

The entire contents of this magazine are copyright 2014 by Capital Newspapers. No portion may be reproduced in any means without written permission of the publisher.

Capital Newspapers is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Hearst Corporation.

Hewitt’s Your holiday tradition since 1964!

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Photo by Peter Bowden

CONTENTS 518 Life Magazine | December 2014

10 12

What’s Online Editor’s Note

Up Front 14 18 22

Trending Where & When In Other Words

Features 30

In the Stockade

56

Wine Bargains Under $10

60

Thoughts of Holidays Past

66

By the Book

69

The Best Records of the Year

24

Living Paleo

36

Where Are the Kids?

42

Make Your Own New Year’s Eve Feast

8 518 Life

Reporter Chris Churchill takes on the caveman lifestyle

Why playing is going the way of dodgeball — and why that’s a bad idea

Yummy recipes from area chefs

Other affordable finds from Italy

Area folks share some of their favorite seasonal memories

Holiday gift suggestions for the reader in your life

Here’s what we were listening to in 2014

pg. 24 Full-on Paleo — for a month.

Franca DiCrescenzo’s home is cinematically beautiful

73

Trainer Tips

74

FYI with Barry Richman

How to do the tricep pushup

Owner of Pearl Grant Richmans

On the Cover Photo and cover design by Colleen Ingerto.

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What’s

Online 518LifeMagazine.com

GALLERIES

more

Online blog.timesunion. com/ontheedge What we’re talking about in the 518.

YouTube youtube.com/ TimesUnionMagazines Check out our tutorial videos on food and exercise and more!

Twitter @518LifeMag The best tweets this side of the Hudson.

(Either side, really.)

Holidays in the Stockade (pg. 30)

New Years Recipes (pg. 42)

We’ve got lots more photos and a video tour of this lovely Schenectady home.

Want more pictures of yummy food and recipes? Of course you do, so head online!

Holiday Memories (pg. 60)

More stuff

Also see more photos of our memory-sharers.

You could win! #IShopLocal518 Contest

Decorate for Winter Here are some quick and easy ways to winterize your home.

10 518 Life

Snap a selfie at any local business and tag it with the #518LifeMag hashtag, and tweet it @518LifeMag or @TimesUnion. You could win four passes valid for one standard class ticket on the Saratoga & North Creek Railway Excursion or two Diamond Class Dome tickets. See timesunion.com for details.

Facebook facebook.com/ 518Life Pictures and events and videos and more!

On your Smartphone m.timesunion. com/518life Flip through our online extras from your cell phone!

Pinterest pinterest.com/ timesunionmags Check out our home, life, garden and food boards!

Photos: Stockade banister by Vincent Giordano; New Years’ recipe by John Carl D’Annibale; Holiday memories by Paul Buckowski; Winter decor by LOOK Photography/GettyImages; Stockade home video clip by Tony Pallone.

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Editor’s Note

Barbie & Ken Win

C

hoosing my favorite holiday memory is easy. It involves our daughter, Rachel, and Ken — as in Ken of Barbie and Ken. By the time Rachel was 4, she already had a Barbie thanks to a friend who gave her $10 for her birthday and said she could buy whatever she wanted. I thought 4 seemed young, but Rachel marched directly to the Barbie shelf without even glancing at the multitude of toys. Negotiating, she made it clear, was not an option.

Fast-forward to Christmas. Ken was at the very top of Rachel’s list. Barbie, she said — repeatedly — needed a boyfriend. While I loved

my years of playing with Barbie and Ken, I also had a lot of trouble picturing a 4-yearold playing some of the games I played. Kissing? Relationship exploring? She’s only 4!

I went into toy stores four different times before finally, on Christmas Eve, succumbing and purchasing Ken. Segue to Christmas morning. Rachel tears into the last box, sees Ken, screams, and jumps up and down: “Thank you! Thank you! Now I am the happiest girl in the whole wide world.”

I decided feminism could wait another day.

Janet Reynolds jreynolds@timesunion.com

Three things you’ll learn in this issue: 1. What area chefs serve up when they’re home New Year’s Eve. (pg 42) 2. Americans consume 156 pounds of added sugar a year! (pg 36) 3. Some of the best local music released this year. (pg 69)

Experience at:

Light up THE NIGHT. CROSSGATES MALL Albany 518.452.9170

Trending #518

CompiLed by Brianna Snyder

Lights In The City

T

#IShopLocal518

his year, a local group called Local First has commissioned an economic study to calculate what the specific benefits are of shopping local. On their site, the Local First organizers cite other similar studies, which found that:

Local business

E

ver walked through the Capital Holiday Lights display in downtown Albany and wondered how many lights you’re even looking at? We were curious, too, so we called Lenny Ricchiuti at the Albany Police Athletic League, which organizes the holiday display.

“We have about 130 displays, and the displays range for as few as 400 or 500 bulbs to a couple of thousand bulbs,” he says. Then there’s the “Victorian-style street lights,” wrapped with about 30 lights. There are about 100 of those. A long time ago, Ricchiuti says, the display was taglined “a million twinkling lights.”

He doesn’t think it’s that many, but “I’d be

surprised if it’s not half a million,” he says.

Also interesting to note is the gradual transition from regular incandescent bulbs to more energy-efficient LED bulbs, which has changed the aesthetic a bit in addition to driving up costs: incandescents cost 7 cents a bulb. Compare that to LEDs’ 79 cents a bulb. Whew.

The good news is the LEDs are less breakable. When bored, unattended kids walk through the park, unscrewing and tossing bulbs, the incandescents shatter. The LEDs are sturdier. Uh, but that doesn’t mean you should go bulb-tossing with the hormonal teens down the street.

14 518 Life

of every dollar stays in the community

VS Non-Local or Chain Business

43 cents of every dollar stays in the community That local money goes toward taxes, supplies, marketing and accounting, employee wages and donations.

That’s why this year, 518Life and the Times Union are launching #IShopLocal518, a shop-local initiative to put money back into our own community.

Sure, Small-Business Saturday is just one day out of the year (right after Black Friday), but we’re going bigger: SmallBusiness December.

Toy Stories Cabbage Patch. Tickle Me Elmo. Furby. What’s the Big Toy of 2014?

According to a customerservice person (who declined to give his name) at the Toys “R” Us in Clifton Park, girls have all things Frozen on their wishlists, “specifically the Disney Sparkle Princess Elsa doll,” our insider says. That’s like a Barbie — an Elsa Barbie, he adds. For boys?

“Skylanders.” That’s the sophisticated video game that incorporates little action-figurey toys as

68 cents

We’re running a contest, too! controllers. Move the characters around on the Skylander “portal” and watch them move onscreen. Pff, and remember when our minds were blown by Tamagotchi? #gettingoldinthe518

Snap a selfie at any local business and tag it with the #518LifeMag hashtag, and tweet it @518LifeMag or @TimesUnion. You could win four passes valid for one standard class ticket on the Saratoga & North Creek Railway Excursion or two Diamond Class Dome tickets.

Check out timesunion.com for more details.

Photos: Capital Holiday Lights by Lori Van Buren/Times Union Archives; Trending toys courtesy Wikimedia. Shop Local illustration by Emily Jahn.

A few of the “half a million” lights in Washington Park

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Trending #518 Because it’s highly subjective, we can’t really ever settle on a definitive list of Best Christmas Movies.

The closest we can get is this list put together

by TotalFilm.com, an online movie guide: 10. Bad Santa (2003) 9. Scrooged (1988) 8. Miracle on 34th Street (1947) 7. Home Alone (1990) 6. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) 5. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) 4. Gremlins (1984) 3. Elf (2003) 2. Die Hard (1988)

1. It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) We also polled our readers and our Facebook friends, and here’s what they said were their favorites: Bichi: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street, It’s A Wonderful Life, Elf ... I love Christmas movies! user “Get Real”: The Nightmare Before Christmas,

Jingle All the Way, Four Christmases, Bad Santa.

Kristen: The Holiday Kathryn: “I love Bad Santa, Christmas Vacation, Nightmare Before Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, and the classics Rudolph, Frosty

and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”

Daisy: “The National Lampoon Christmas ... it’s not Christmas without the Griswold family! :)” Did we miss one of your favorites? Tweet us @518LifeMag

Local Spirit Conductor’s Cassis Made by: Brookview Station Winery, Castleton What is it: A cordial made from blackcurrants, Conductor’s Cassis is modeled after the French crème de cassis, a sweet, dark-red liqueur that has been a specialty of Burgundian winemakers for almost two centuries. It won a gold medal at the Florida State Wine Competition and a bronze at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition.

How to use it: Crème de cassis is the basis for cocktails including the kir and kir royale (cassis with white wine and champagne, respectively), as an aperitif or an after-dinner drink, drizzled over vanilla ice cream or shaved ice, or cooked with dark fruits (plums, strawberries, dried cranberries) to make a lovely sauce for roasted or grilled pork.

How much: About $30 for 375ml bottle Where to buy: At the winery or area wine shops and restaurants; for a list visit brookviewstationwinery.com/retailloc.html

Fight the Power

L

ast month, a Saratoga police officer was arrested for slapping a young man and cursing at him and his friend when the two refused to let the officer into their car without a warrant. The incident was caught on video and went viral, joining the growing cache of police-abuse and -corruption videos populating the Web. In fact, just a search of YouTube for “police” and “Albany, NY” calls up numerous videos capturing — or claiming to capture — police abuse. “Albany Police Using Force to Violate Rights!,” reads one, “Albany, NY Police harassing my older brother …” reads another.  And let’s not forget the infamous Kokopelli’s video, which caught police violence in a brawl in Troy.

The Saratoga slapping incident follows

16 518 Life

this summer’s Ferguson protests, the choking death of Eric Garner by New York City cops, the beating of an elderly woman on the side of the highway — all caught on video.

Not surprisingly, more people are calling for police to be filmed while on the job, not only for their protection but for the protection of those interacting with them. If you’re interested, apps like Cop Recorder 2, Fi-Vo Film and OpenWatch enable you to upload audio and video to a central server or your DropBox account (in the event that your phone is confiscated and wiped).

Stay tuned for an upcoming story in 518Life and the Times Union about your rights when filming the police, what this new activism looks like, who it helps, who it hurts, and when and how you should use it.

Photos: It’s A Wonderful Life poster courtesy Wikimedia; Police violence photo by Michael Wagner/Times Union Archives. Conductor’s Cassis illustration by Emily Jahn.

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Where & When #518

CompiLed by Brianna Snyder

Hear This  You might know singer/songwriter Chuck Ragan from Hot Water Music, that emo/hardcore band from Florida, sort of in the vein of Against Me!, Bouncing Souls and Senses Fail. Ragan has since done a lot of solo work, putting out three records, including the most recent ’Til Midnight. Check it out on Spotify. He’s playing tunes from the new album at the Hollow in Albany. We’ll be there, so come see us.

Chuck Ragan, Dec. 13, $15-$18, The Hollow, Albany, thehollowalbany.com

Watching John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight every Sunday has become a sort of ritualistic catharsis for us. Oliver, who got his start on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, takes what that show does so well — savagely dismantles the corruption and buffoonery of modern media and politics — and amplifies the effect. In each episode, he takes on one big story, explicating complex issues such as police militarization, income inequality, corporate corruption and a failed criminal justice system. Maybe it’s Oliver’s British perspective that makes his show so resonant — the outsider-looking-in thing that Piers Morgan never managed to pull off — or maybe it’s just that he’s a wicked smart dude, whose show is changing the way we think about news, comedy, and news comedy.

John Oliver, Dec. 13, $39.75, The Palace Theater, Albany, palacealbany.com

See This  Seeing the elaborate holiday decorations on the houses of your ambitious neighbors is one of the most fun parts of the season. Saratoga is offering a next-level opportunity to go lightlooking on Dec. 12’s Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation Candlelight House Tour. Not only do you get to look at the outsides of these historic homes, but you get to go in and walk around a bit, too. The tour takes you through the North Broadway neighborhood, and is followed by a reception and silent auction at the Saratoga Golf and Polo Club.

Candlelight House Tour, $40-$85, Dec. 12, Saratoga Springs, saratoga. com/event/house-tour-53871/

18 518 Life

Photos: Chuck Ragan photo courtesy of the artist. Josiah G. Salisbury home from the Times Union Archives.

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Where & When #518 Watch

This

This past semester, Laurie Anderson has been serving as RPI’s artist-in-residence, developing new works for EMPAC. Anderson is a renowned performance artist, musician, auteur, photographer and writer. (She was also the wife of the late Lou Reed.) Her new untitled film, described by EMPAC as a 40-minute personal essay, follows a series of confessional stories, soundtracked by an original score.

It was partially filmed at EMPAC. The theater is screening the film, followed by a discussion of Anderson’s artistic process.

Laurie Anderson, New Film, Dec. 12, EMPAC, Troy, empac.rpi.edu

Elf is probably the Millennial generation’s It’s a Wonderful Life — a beloved classic that plays on repeat once December starts. So it’s only natural that someone would make a musical of the same name and concept, ELF: The Broadway Musical.

In case you were in a coma or something for the last 10 years, Elf is the story of an orphan who finds himself in the North Pole, doesn’t realize he’s a human, identifies as an elf, then gets thrown back into the real human world of New York City, where he discovers his hyper-happyholiday elf behavior freaks people out. It should be a good antidote to all the Nutcracker performances you’ll be enduring this year.

Elf: The Broadway Musical, Dec. 23-28, $20-$75, Proctors, Schenectady, proctors.org

See

This

You may have seen Hari Kondabolu on the shortlived but very smart Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. That was a Jon Stewart-style news-comedy show, but, refreshingly, featured mostly people of color. Kondabolu was a writer on that show as well as a correspondent. (In one segment, he rails against Columbus Day: “Columbus is the reason I have to tell people that I’m Indian from India.”)

Comedy runs in the Kondabolu family, too, by the way: Kondabolu’s brother is Ashok Kondabolu, aka Dapwell of the rap group Das Racist. In fact, the brothers have a podcast together — “Untitled Kondabolu Brothers Podcast” — where they talk about rap and pop culture, politics, race and literature. This is a kind of social-justice-flavored comedy — critical, cutting and very, very funny.

Hari Kondabolu, $12, December 13, MASS MoCA, massmoca.org

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Photos: Laurie Anderson video clip courtesy of the artist; Elf photo by Joan Marcus; Hari Kondabolu photo by Kyle Johnson, courtesy of the artist.

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The problem is often misdiagnosed, or not diagnosed at all. But, it affects the lives of between 10 and 20 million Americans.

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Often, people dealing with neuropathy have been frustrated by the traditional care they’ve received for these terrible problems and are still seeking help.

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In Other Words

By Akum Norder

The Battle of Henry Johnson

T

he popular story of Henry Johnson, Albany’s World War I hero, goes something like this: Johnson was a railroad porter who enlisted in the black regiment that came to be known as the Harlem Hellfighters. Because of Army segregation policies, they were assigned to fight under French command. One night in May 1918, Johnson and another black soldier were on sentry duty when a German raiding party set upon them. Johnson repelled the 20-man squad nearly single-handedly, fighting with such ferocity with rifle butt and bolo knife that the encounter came to be called “The Battle of Henry Johnson.” Despite sustaining multiple wounds himself, Johnson held the line and prevented the capture of his injured comrade.

The French honored Johnson with the Croix de Guerre with Gold Palm. But he came home to a racist America that threw him a Harlem parade and then quickly forgot him. Denied a disability pension because of a paperwork error, he struggled to keep a job. Eleven years later, still a young man, Johnson died a destitute alcoholic. He received no recognition from his own government within his lifetime.

That story’s not wrong. But it’s not complete, either.

Here’s another version of what happened after Henry Johnson came home, based on newspaper accounts and declassified documents from the Division of Military Intelligence. And it’s a story that makes it all the more important for Johnson to be recognized as a hero.

After the Harlem parade, Henry Johnson found a warm welcome in Albany. The governor and mayor met his train, where he was swept away to a big reception at the state armory. President Woodrow Wilson sent regards. Newspapers wrote that he drew crowds wherever he went. A bullet-torn flag carried by his regiment was unfurled in the state Capitol’s executive chamber.

For a time, Johnson was a hot ticket. The government traded on his popularity to sell Victory Stamps. (“Henry Johnson Licked a

Sergeant Needham Roberts and Sergeant Henry Johnson, the first two Americans to earn the Croix de Guerre.

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“

Honoring Henry Johnson matters. It matters because it’s important that our country’s idea of ‘patriots’ and ‘heroes’ includes people of all races.

”

Dozen Germans. How many Stamps have You Licked?”) He spoke before the state legislature, to thundering applause, urging passage of a civil service recognition bill for veterans. And he set out on the lecture circuit, drawing crowds who cheered his exploits over and over again.

Certainly, the praise was flecked with bias.

“Albany’s colored war hero,” he was called, when “Albany’s war hero” would have described him just as well. And some accounts of his valor had an undercurrent of disbelief: A black man who can fight?! Who’d have thought? So yes, there was prejudice and caricature. But there was also much genuine admiration. It wasn’t indifference; it wasn’t obscurity. Not yet.

In late March of 1919, Johnson arrived in St. Louis, Mo., to give a speech about his exploits. It was a big event: an audience of 5,000, an introduction by the mayor. But the crowd got more than they expected: Johnson went off-script to rail against the prejudice he had encountered from his white comrades-in-arms.

Marines “refused to go in the trenches” with black soldiers, Johnson said. But when there was real fighting to do, he said, “they sent the negroes” — and he quoted a white officer whom he’d heard say, sure, send black men to the front so “there won’t be so many around New York.” A newspaper attributed this quote to Johnson: “They may put the negroes in the rear seats of cars here, but they did not make any discrimination in No Man’s Land. They sent the negroes up ahead.”

It was a bitter speech. Johnson questioned the bravery of white soldiers and told a story of a white officer who tried to desert his men under enemy fire. “If I was a white man,” Henry Johnson said, “I would be the next governor of New York.”

In the era of Birth of a Nation, Jim Crow laws and a resurgent KKK, Johnson’s speech was incendiary. Many in the black community had hoped military service might open doors to greater acceptance; they saw Johnson as a standard-bearer. But hearing this speech, St. Louis’ black community tried at once to distance itself from Johnson — literally: Dignitaries on the stage with him stood up and moved away. “HENRY JOHNSON’S SPEECH INSULTS COLISEUM CROWD” was the headline of The St. Louis Argus, a black-interests newspaper. Its account called Johnson “unmanageable,” his speech “irresponsible.” “It was very embarrassing not only to the audience, but to the management of the affair,” the paper wrote, and quoted an event organizer who said, “He did us more harm than good.”

A warrant was issued the next day for Johnson’s arrest, but authorities couldn’t locate him: He left St. Louis that night.

Newspaper reports on the speech brought Johnson to the atten-

Akum Norder Akum Norder is an Albany writer.

tion of the Military Intelligence Division, which looked into whether he could be charged with inciting a riot. In an internal memo, its “Negro Subversion” unit chief wrote, “Johnson is densely ignorant and is suffering from a severe case of ‘swelled head,’” and recommended he be stripped of the right to wear his uniform.

Then came obscurity.

Johnson’s speaking engagements dried up.

He tried to return to work as a porter but was too injured to do it. Suffering from alcoholism and estranged from his family, Henry Johnson died in 1929.

These accounts don’t change Johnson’s story, really: At its heart is still the fact that the nation he fought for did him wrong. But it does suggest he suffered an even deeper injustice. And if Henry Johnson was written off not just because of prejudice, but also because he spoke out against it — that casts him not as a passive victim of a racist age but as a man who went down fighting.

Decades of effort have gone into seeing that Johnson gets recognized for his deeds.

He was awarded the Purple Heart in 1996, the Distinguished Service Cross in 2003. Now the campaign to award him the nation’s highest military honor is in its final few steps.

In August, U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel recommended him for the Medal of Honor, and New York lawmakers have introduced legislation that could bring his file to the president’s desk.

Honoring Henry Johnson matters. It matters because it’s important that our country’s idea of “patriots” and “heroes” includes people of all races. It might also help us remember that there are more ways to be a hero than by gun and knife.

518LifeMagazine.com 23

Paleo For 28 days, I was a caveman. Well, not a caveman exactly, but the next best thing in this modern world.

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Reporter Chris Churchill takes on the caveman lifestyle

By Chris Churchill | Photos by Colleen Ingerto

I was a quasi resident of the Paleolithic Age — journeying 10,000 years back, at least, to a more primitive time of simpler foods and less frenzy.

For one looonnnng month, I adopted the trendy Paleo diet you’ve probably heard about, forgoing dairy, grains, sugar, carbs and nearly everything else that makes food delicious and satisfying. Yet that wasn’t enough.

I wanted more of less. So I also adopted the less-trendy Paleo lifestyle.

Lifestyle? Yes, lifestyle. See, the legions of

Paleo People don’t just reject our Pringles and Twinkies. They reject our technological madness, with the tweeting and downloading and texting, with the boob tubes and iPhones and tablets. They seek a more primal time, when night was night and surfing was done on water. They want to return to the ancestral cave, albeit with modern heating and comfy furniture. They seek to spend more time outside, exercising the natural way, and less time staring at screens. They desire to live simply, even if doing so means enacting rituals that seem anything but simple.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I should note an important caveat. Paleo eating I could do around the clock. But full-time Pa-

Evolution Illustration: Man_Half-tube/GettyImages.

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Tools of the Trade Everything you need to do Chris’s version of paleo

Sooo many eggs

leo living is impossible for anyone whose daily work involves more than digging ditches. Like many of you, I have a job that involves staring at a computer (as I’m doing right this very second, actually) under fluorescent lights in a building that isn’t within walking distance of my home — all of which, of course, would be unfamiliar to a person of the Paleolithic Age. And, sadly, time limitations prevent me from hunting and gathering my family’s food.

The point here is that like most modernday Paleo People, I can’t go full caveman. I was forced to shunt my primal lifestyle to the fringes of the day — mostly early in the morning and after 8 p.m. You do what you can do, right? Here, in diary form, is my experience.

MEAT.

Day One Lots o’ nuts

Some sneaks

Kangaroo carrier

Radio

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Did someone say this diet was supposed to be hard? Hah. I began the day with a lovely breakfast of eggs and fruit, lunched on salad with tuna, and, for dinner, scarfed a perfectly cooked steak with a side of tender asparagus.

My conclusion: Our cavemen ancestors had it pretty good! (I wonder which supermarket they preferred. The Flintstones, I seem to remember, shopped at Safestone’s.)

Now, as you may have heard, the point of this Paleo diet is to bring our eating habits in line with what some consider “ancestral health principles.” Certainly, the obesity epidemic makes it clear that our past didn’t prepare us to consume gallons of corn syrup, but Paleo People believe, with at least some scientific evidence to back their claims, that we also aren’t evolved to eat many of the foods given to us by the adoption of agriculture. To them, that means the healthiest diet precludes dairy, grains and sugar, as I said earlier, but also legumes, processed oils, flavorings, preservatives or alcohol. Yikes.

So what does that leave? Meat, fish, eggs, nuts, fruits and vegetables — the foods that supposedly were available to the wandering tribes of the Paleolithic Age. It’s easy to poke holes in this. As journalist Jo Robinson points out in her book Eating on the Wild Side, nearly all of the edible plants around during caveman days have been altered beyond recogni-

BEFORE Indulging in tech and carbs wasn’t an option during Chris’s month of Paleo living.

tion by human hands, meaning we can’t really eat a Stone Age diet in the Information Age. Moreover, many Paleo People subsist, year round, on diets that combine tropical crops (i.e. bananas and coconuts) with cool-weather crops such as broccoli. No caveman, of course, could have enjoyed that kind of variety, and we couldn’t either without supermarkets and modern shipping. And let me tell you this: When you’re actually suffering through the diet, many of the rules seem stupidly capricious. Wait, I can eat almond butter but not peanut butter? I can’t eat BLACK BEANS?!

Mostly, the diet means lots and lots of meat — preferably grass-fed meat — making the Paleo craze not all that different than its Atkins processor. And, oh, you eat quite a few eggs. Can’t complain about that, though. Eggs are delicious.

Day Illustrations by Colleen Ingerto. Photos: Nuts, Sneaks, Kangaroo Carrier, and Radio photos by Colleen Ingerto. All others, GettyImages. Eggs, Ermin Gutenberger; Meat, Foodcollection; Beans, Lauri Patterson; Yogurt, AndreyTTL; Peanut Butter, Lee Rogers; Rice, hh5800; Oatmeal, Lauri Patterson; Corn, Creativeye99; Milk, MARIA TOUTOUDAKI; Juice, ma-k; Cheese, Floortje; Peas, Fuat Kose; Potatoes, Kaan Ates; Processed Meat, Carlos Gawronski.

Day 8 Eggs are vile and slimy. Seriously, if I have to eat one more egg there might be violence. I now understand why breakfast is the toughest meal for many in the Paleo crowd.

So let’s focus instead on the lifestyle side of this experiment. Truth be told, my little household, consisting of my wife, Danielle, and our 8-month-old daughter, had a leg up on most Paleo converts, because we had already decided to unplug and unhook our TV, after a week’s vacation at an off-the-grid cabin made us realize we wouldn’t miss it. So while the no-TV thing is the most challenging part of the Paleo lifestyle for many households, it was easy for us. Still, Paleo has its hiccups when you live in a house where not everyone is ready to go all primitive precisely at 8 p.m., which is where I tried to draw the no-technology line, not always successfully.

Here I am, for example, on a recent evening, relaxing on the couch with book in hand, my smartphone and laptop safely stowed away. Suddenly, I hear the scream of a forbidden appliance.

“Hey,” I say to my wife. “What are you doing?”

“I’m vacuuming,” she says.

“You can’t,” I say. “There’s no vacuuming in the cave.”

Other times, I’m the one who slips up, like when Danielle catches me mesmerized by my phone after the 8 p.m. cutoff time. She accuses me of cheating.

“Really?” I ask innocently. “What time is it?”

Sometimes, this Paleo living is just confusing.

I mean, is it really enough to turn off only our screens? They didn’t have books in the Paleolithic Era, so should I be reading? It would seem more appropriate to spend the evening scrawling on the walls. Or, if I allow myself radio, can I listen on my iPad? Or does it have to be a traditional radio?

There are so many questions …

Day 11 Before the nightly cutoff, I happen to see an online video of Sean Rowe, the nationally known

Capital Region musician who’s also famous for disappearing into the woods for long stretches of time.

In the video, he’s describing one such “wilderness survival” trek and how he lost so much weight the bones in his butt hurt when he sat down — despite all the “foraging” and “trapping critters” he’d been doing. “I was taking in a lot of food but it wasn’t enough,” he says. “When you’re out there, you have to constantly consume calories. It’s a whole different game.”

And suddenly, my whole Paleo experiment seems ridiculous and I feel like a fraud. Sure I’ve been exercising more, trying, for example, to spend more time walking in the woods. But who I am kidding? No self-respecting caveman would be sitting here on the couch watching videos and eating cashews from Trader Joe’s. I’m no caveman. That guy Rowe, he’s the real deal. He’s true Paleo.

12 foods NOT allowed on the Paleo diet black beans

yogurt

peanut butter

brown rice

oatmeal

corn

Day 19 Paleo People put a big emphasis on the deep sleep that’s so difficult to get in this brightly lit world of ours. The ideal is to go to bed when it’s dark and rise with the sun — you know, like when you’re camping. This is easiest to accomplish if you turn your bedroom into a cave of sorts — cover the windows and get rid of all electronic devices, including alarm clocks.

Even in the supposedly dark heart of night, our bedroom is usually bright enough to make out shapes, thanks to streetlights. The solution I chose: towels hung over the windows. Wow. Now that’s darkness! We ran into two problems. One, our infant daughter likes to be fed at night, and when she cried, we could hardly find her. Two, how do you wake with the sun when you’ve blocked out all its rays? Without an alarm clock, we could have slept until noon.

Danielle, I’ll add, was no fan of our sleep cave.

“It was way too dark,” she said in the morning.

“I felt claustrophobic.”

Tonight, the towels will be back in the bathroom, where they belong. 

milk

fruit juice

cheese

peas potatoes processed meats

518LifeMagazine.com 27

I know what you’re wondering. How much have I cheated? Not all that much.

Sure, sometimes the demands of work and life forced me to, you know, answer the phone after 8 p.m. And yes, I have on occasion broken the diet, having a glass or two of wine, say, or the aforementioned black beans. So sue me. But in truth, even the most devoted Paleo People allow themselves some dietary leeway.

Loren Cordain, widely considered a leader in the Paleo movement, advocates an 85/15 rule of compliance — a yardstick that I’ve been managing to clear. So far, at least. But this is getting awfully old.

What Paleo might look like if we went back before fire was invented.

Conclusion The long ordeal is over. Actually, it wasn’t so bad. I lost a few pounds. My energy level jumped. But that shouldn’t be surprising. Anybody who eats only

Day Illustration by Colleen Ingerto.

Day 24

fresh foods, exercises more, makes their evenings less distracting and concentrates on a good night’s sleep is going to feel better. You don’t have to go Paleo to do all that stuff.

Yes, it’s good to be wary of how we’re allowing technology to alter our lives, and you have to wonder if, on some level, the Paleo craze reflects an anxiety about what we’re becoming. And going Paleo for a month certainly teaches you something about how you’re spending your time and how you’re eating. For example, I discovered that I’ve no doubt been eating too much bread, and that I didn’t miss it much. I’ll probably eat much less of it going forward.

Here’s the thing, though: I don’t want to reject agriculture. I like farms and all they give us. Sure, there are many problems with industrial-scale ag — the provider of all the corn syrup and processed foods — but you don’t have to be a caveman to avoid all that stuff. You just have to be a careful shopper. Or, if you really want to embrace a different era, you could just go back, say, 150 years ago, when farms grew food for local people and there was no such thing as a Cheez Doodle. You could call it the Civil War Diet, or maybe the Amish Diet. (Hmm, should I trademark that?) What’s more, many Paleo People end up eating a LOT of meat, and that certainly has consequences— potentially clogged arteries, for one, along with an environmental impact. As New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert noted in her review of the Paleo diet, beef production requires 10 times more water than wheat production, and livestock contribute mightily to global warming. What we eat matters, and nearly everyone agrees that we should be eating more fruits and vegetables.

I guess what I’m trying to say is this: Going quasi-caveman was fine for a month, but I wouldn’t make it a full-time lifestyle.

Now somebody get me some cheese.

AFTER And here’s Chris, sans razor, cellphone and bread.

This American Lifestyle 90%

8.5 hrs

70%

156 lbs

6.8 hrs

Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency

Americans spend 8.5 hours in front of screens per day, according to a 2009 study by the Council for Research Excellence

Processed foods account for 70 percent of calories consumed in the U.S., according to Pandora’s Lunchbox, a book by NY Times reporter Melanie Warner

Americans consume 156 pounds of (added) sugar in a year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture

Americans average 6.8 hours of sleep per night, according to Gallup, which falls short of the recommended 7 to 9 hours.

28 518 Life

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Stockade Franca DiCrescenzo’s home is cinematically beautiful

Oreck upright vacuums start at about 9 pounds so you can easily take them all over the house. But they also generate 102 mph airflow, giving you the power you need to clean up whatever you find when you get there. And they’re backed by our reputation for dependability and our Oreck Clean Home Centers, so you’ll be saying...

By Brianna Snyder | Photos by Vincent Giordano

T

he Stockade is one of many up-and-coming spots in the Capital Region. Lush and lined with gorgeous brownstones, the Stockade may be the area that convinces you to move to Schenectady.

Franca DiCrescenzo’s no tourist, though. She grew up in Niskayuna, and has lived in the Stockade for years. As principal broker at the realty firm Armida

Rose, DiCrescenzo’s an expert in great homes. And her own Stockade 1700s brownstone is testament to that. (In fact, when the 2012 movie The Place Beyond the Pines was filming in Schenectady, a certain hunky, blue-eyed actor [who is not Ryan Gosling] lived at DiCrescenzo’s brownstone for nearly two months, while DiCrescenzo stayed with her boyfriend.) 

Franca DiCrescenzo

HANNAFORD PLAZA WOLF RD. ALBANY • 446.0250 www.oreckstore.com/albany

See more photos and a video tour of this gorgeous home at timesunion.com/518life

DiCrescenzo’s taste centers on nature and the Buddhist principles of earth, spirituality and calm. She has dozens of Buddhas throughout the home. The walls — those not made of exposed brick — are painted deep, earthy reds, browns and golds.

“When I originally moved here, it was more cool colors. It was more Colonial, more Victorian,” she says.

So she repainted and added a touch of nature. “I’m obsessed with rocks and driftwood.”

DiCrescenzo found this home when she was showing it to a client.

“I walked in and fell in love with it immediately,” she says. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, you totally need to buy this house!’” But ultimately the client declined to buy, so DiCrescenzo scooped it up.

The big project for DiCrescenzo was the back patio. She carried her Asian theme from the house into the garden area, adding waterfalls and painting cherry-blossom murals on the fence.

In the summertime, she hosts beautiful and elaborate parties there.

“What I really love is bringing nature inside,” DiCrescenzo says. “It inspires. There’s truth and consistency in nature and the way things evolve and move.” 

Last year and this year, DiCrescenzo brought in Rudy Grant and David Siders of Experience and Creative Design to do her Christmas decor. In keeping with DiCrescenzo’s preference for a natural aesthetic, Grant and Siders kept the decor organic and earthy: they used burlap and ribbon and kept the Christmas tree simple.

32 518 Life

518LifeMagazine.com 33

Paula McCormick, of Paula McCormick Interiors in Loudonville, has also done work on DiCrescenzo’s house, adding accent pieces and a custom bedspread, among other items.

“Working with [Franca] is a pleasure because she likes what you find her,” McCormick says.

That includes pieces from Silver Fox Salvage in Albany and from antique shops and stores such as Vintage Chic Furniture in Schenectady (also one of DiCrescenzo’s favorite places to pick up interesting pieces for her home).

Where Are the Kids?

Why playing is going the way of dodgeball — and why that’s a bad idea

BY CHRIS CHURCHILL

36 518 LIFE

Photo: Lola Takes Pictures/GettyImages. Illustrations by Colleen Ingerto.

I

t’s a beautiful October afternoon in a shady Colonie neighborhood. The sun glows. Fallen leaves dance across the street.

The temperature is just on the crisp side of perfect. It is, all and all, an ideal day to be outside.

But the neighborhood is quiet.

Every lawn and backyard is empty, which begs this question: Where are all the children? This is suburbia.

Kids must be growing up in some of these houses, right?

They are, of course, but today’s childhoods are so very different than mine — and likely the one many of you remember. My generation, children of the 1980s, would come home from school, drop our bags just inside the door and immediately head back outside. There we would remain, yelling and playing, running and jumping, until dinnertime, at least. We might even go back out afterward.

Until 15 or 20 years ago, that kind of childhood was common.

Then, something changed. Society changed. Across the country, parents began to fear letting their children roam. Many kids seemed happy to remain inside, occupied by TV or video games. Today, improvised, make-it-up-as-you-go play is rare in many communities. Instead, when children do play, it’s often in structured leagues where games are supervised by hovering adults ready to impose rules and settle any dispute — far from the free-range play we enjoyed.

This has been a widely noticed change, of course. Albany resident Chris Mercogliano even wrote a book that highlights the trend.

In 2007, he published In Defense of Childhood: Protecting Kids’ Inner Wildness, a finely researched and widely lauded book that decries “a domestication of childhood” that makes “virtually every arena of a child’s life subject to some form of adult mediation, supervision, or control.” He notes that the amount of unstructured, unsupervised play outside the home by middle-class kids

between 3 and 11 declined by 40 percent between the early 1980s and the late 1990s. It isn’t hard to figure out what they’re doing instead: The American Academy of Pediatrics says the average American child spends seven hours a day staring at a television, computer, smartphone or some other electronic screen.

To Mercogliano, today’s kids are being robbed of the freedom and joy that made childhood an especially remarkable and rewarding time of life. “It’s amazing what kids will learn through play,” he told me.

The change — this lack of free play — isn’t without consequences.

There is, as we’ve all heard, a childhood obesity epidemic — an unsurprising result when kids trade the hard and restless physicality of the outdoors for the soft comfort of a couch. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of obese children aged 6 to 11 jumped from seven percent in 1980 to 18 percent in 2012. The obesity rate among those aged 12 to 19 climbed from five percent to nearly 21 percent during the same period.

What’s more, a study released in October by University at Illinois researchers found that kids even learn better after they’ve been physically active. Some researchers also believe kids who don’t play creatively, who don’t use their imagination to create their own games, may become less creative adults. Likewise, children who aren’t given the responsibility of independence may not be prepared for adult leadership, or so the theory goes.

All good for the armchair theorists. But what’s a parent to do?

Many of us would love to allow our children to experience the unfettered freedom we once enjoyed. But parents can’t exactly send their children out to roam streets and parks where no other kids are playing. That poor, solitary child would be bored silly. Plus, parents fear for their children. The world just feels so much less innocent. And this is without taking into account families where

both parents, or the single head of household, work. Telling a child to just hang out in the park while a parent is not nearby to help out if a problem arises is the kind of behavior that seems like it could result in a headline and a visit from the state questioning parental suitability.

“I knew better, but I still didn’t let my kids out to wander freely,” says Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.

Louv’s book documents how many parental fears are essentially without cause. Crime statistics show that today’s world is actually not more dangerous than the one in which kids played more freely. Louv calls it the “bogeyman syndrome” and notes that crimes like child kidnappings remain extraordinarily rare.

Indeed, the FBI reports that there are only about 115 incidents a year in which children are abducted by strangers — and that’s in a nation of 74 million children.

But we just see and hear so much about the kidnappings that do occur in this age of round-the-clock, click-of-a-mouse news and information. “We’ve been conditioned to live in a state of fear,” says Louv, who lives near San Diego. “I know that fear, even though I knew it wasn’t rational.”

B

ut at least kids get to play at school. Right? Well, not so much. And much less than before.

As the pressure for higher test scores has increased, many public schools have cut gym class and recess, lengthened the school day and year, and taken other steps that keep children away from play.

“There has been an enormous qualitative shift in the nature of schooling over the last two generations,” Mercogliano says. “The [changes] with the most impact on inner wildness are the steadily increasing formality, the high degree to which the classroom routine is shaped from afar, and the skyrocketing pressure to produce quantifiable results.” 

Kids today...

The amount of

unstructured, unsupervised play outside the home by middle-class kids between 3 and 11

declined by 40 percent between

the early 1980s and the late 1990s.

Instead they...

The average American child spends seven hours a day staring at a television, computer, smartphone or some other electronic screen.

Today...

The percentage of obese children aged 6 to 11 jumped from seven percent in 1980 to 18 percent in 2012. The obesity rate among those aged 12 to 19 climbed from five percent to nearly 21 percent during the same period.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 37

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40 518 LIFE

located in the Mansion neighborhood southeast of Empire State Plaza. The 45-year-old, K-8 school offers kids a remarkable amount of leeway. If they’d rather play than sit for structured learning, so be it. If they’d rather sit and think than play, that’s fine too, according to the school’s philosophy, which trusts children to decide their own path.

“Some parents get freaked out by the free-

dom,” says Bhawin Suchak, the school’s director. “They say, ‘I want my kids sitting working on math skills, not running around all day.’

But one of the things we try to preserve here is letting kids be kids.”

To that end, the Free School emphasizes time spent outdoors. One day each week, students leave the city behind to travel to the school’s 250-acre retreat in Grafton, where the kids romp in the woods, learn wilderness skills and, in the spring, tap trees to make maple syrup. “It was pretty amazing to watch the kind of discoveries that the children would make outdoors,” says Mercogliano, who was the Free School’s director until 2007. “And coming home, you could just see how peaceful and content they were.”

That sounds great, but the vast majority of parents don’t have the desire (or money) to place their kids in private, alternative schools.

And most parents have a backyard rather than a wilderness retreat of their own. So I asked Mercogliano what ordinary, busy parents can do to help their children live a more play-filled life.

His first suggestion: Look in the mirror, and make sure that we’re doing things that bring us joy. “We focus on kids in isolation, and we forget how important parents are as models,” Mercogliano says. “The problems

Photos courtesy of The Free School (albanyfreeschool.org).

The Capital Region is dotted with alternative schools that offer a more playful approach to education — including the Mountain Road School in New Lebanon; the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs, with its famous Forest Kindergarten that has students spending much of school day outside; and the area’s many Montessori schools.

Another example is the Albany Free School,

I’m free...

Pictured at left and below: The Albany Free School emphasizes time spent outdoors. One day each week, students leave the city behind to travel to the school’s 250-acre retreat in Grafton, where the kids romp in the woods and learn wilderness skills. Pictured above: Here are the kids participating in first-day-of-school outdoor activities to get to know each other.

with children’s play leaks over from adults. So many parents are leading overstressed and overtaxed lives. They’re not taking care of themselves.”

Mercogliano says he learned the value of play from his own parents, who would sit and play cards with friends for hours.

How many of us do that anymore? Adults need to have fun, too. And many adults should be spending more time outside.

(Guilty as charged.)

Mercogliano also suggested creating the space for children to play in free, self-directed ways.

That includes trusting kids to learn from their mistakes, even painful ones. “Scrapes and bruises and bumps on the head are a natural part of growing up — and often important learning experiences,” he says. Another key is not overpacking kids’ schedules with activity after activity.

Encourage children to do what they love, he says, but otherwise limit extracurricular activities.

And speaking of limits, be more aggressive about turning off the television and video games. Doing so will allow kids to use their imaginations, be creative and get some exercise. Of course, many parents know, instinctively, that their kids are staring too much

at screens, but are nevertheless reluctant to do something about it. “A lot of parents have a hard time saying no to kids,” Mercogliano says. “They don’t want them to be mad at them.”

Well, if they’re going to be mad anyway, then you might as well take up Mercogliano’s next suggestion: Make children do chores and encourage them to earn a little money.

Wait, aren’t chores the opposite of play? In a sense, yes, but Mercogliano believes they’re important. “Work has tremendous value,” he says. “It feeds a child’s sense of worth, their self-confidence ... and their sense of being capable and important.”

In many households, work around the house has lost out to homework from school. Parents say, “You do well in school, and we’ll do everything else.” But Mercogliano cites studies showing that a commonality among many high-achieving adults is being assigned to do chores at a young age. In other words, household chores might result in the very attributes needed for success in school.

“It’s another one of the disappearing ingredients that’s more important than people realize,” Mercogliano says.

… To Play!

… To Do Everything!

… To Be Strong!

… To Be Myself!

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… To Be A Diva!

Is your child free to learn? … To Learn In My Own Ways!

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Make Your Own ...

New Year’s Eve

Feast

BY STEVE BARNES | PHOTOS BY JOHN CARL D’ANNIBALE AND LORI VAN BUREN

ew Year’s Eve is one of the busiest nights of the year for restaurants, about equal with Valentine’s Day and surpassed only by Mother’s Day as an occasion for dining out with family and friends. But even though eateries are packed with revelers spending big on indulgent meals, research shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans stay home on Dec. 31, about four times more than those who dine out.

With that in mind, we asked six Capital Region restaurant chefs — who most certainly will be working on the last night of this year — to help us put together the Ultimate AtHome New Year’s Eve Feast. Although they submitted their recipes independently, without restrictions on ingredients or how complicated the recipes could be, the resulting meal is one that could be managed by a couple of home cooks working together, and they’d still have time to sit down with their guests.

The courses range from the simple rusticity of butternut-squash bisque to the elegance of cod with lobster and truffle to a playful dessert — a version of tiramisu made with Twinkies, conceived by a chef to honor her late father.

With each recipe we’ve included the chef’s reason for recommending it for your Ultimate AtHome New Year’s Eve Feast. 

42 518 LIFE

Photo: Jamie Grill/GettyImages.

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The heat from the sausage and the earthiness from the fennel and Pernod create a rich broth, and the brininess and acidic notes in the aioli on the toast are meant to cut through that richness.

These are the flavors I crave on a cold winter’s night. The family-style nature of this course brings out the essence of what I always try to achieve when I’m planning a meal for the ones I love.

44 518 LIFE

Photos by Lori Van Buren.

Why I chose this…

Littleneck Clams with Fennel Sausage, Tomato-Fennel Broth, Grilled Rustic Toast and Green-Olive Aioli Ingredients

Method

30 littleneck clams, scrubbed 4 cloves garlic, minced 10 fennel seeds 1½ cups of your favorite loose fennel sausage, hot or sweet (I prefer hot) 2½ cups canned whole, peeled plum tomatoes, liquid drained, roughly chopped 1 cup white wine 2 ounces Pernod or 1 ounce Sambuca 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley 1 loaf rustic bread from your favorite bakery, cut into thick slices 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons cold butter ¾ cup mayonnaise 3 ounces of your favorite green olive, pitted 1 lemon

1. In a large pot add 1 tablespoon butter, 1½ tablespoons olive oil, minced garlic (reserving 1 teaspoon for later use) and fennel seed over medium heat. Cook garlic until golden brown. Add loose sausage and turn heat down to medium low. Sauté until sausage is cooked through.

2. Return heat to medium, add tomatoes, and simmer for 2 minutes. Add clams, Pernod or Sambuca, white wine and cover.

Simmer for 6 to 9 minutes, or until the clams have popped open.

3. Add 2 more tablespoons cold butter, flat-leaf parsley and juice of half a lemon. Adjust seasoning with salt and black pepper.

4. Meanwhile, chop the pitted green olives and combine with

mayonnaise, season with 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon chopped garlic and salt to taste.

5. Drizzle the sliced bread generously with extra-virgin olive oil and, using a hot grill pan, grill both sides until bread is slightly crisp and marked but still a bit soft on the inside.

(If you do not have a grill pan, feel free to quickly bake in the oven.)

6. Slather each of the six slices of grilled or baked toast with the olive aioli. Pour the clams and the broth into a large serving bowl.

7. Everyone gets their own slice of bread for dipping and their own bowl to discard their clamshells, but I prefer this dish served family style.

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Michael Pallozzi Executive Chef Carney’s Tavern, Ballston Lake

Photos by John Carl D’Annibale.

Why I chose this…

It’s one of my favorite soups of all time, especially in

Butternut Squash Bisque Ingredients 4 pounds butternut squash 5 peeled carrots ¼ cup vegetable oil ¼ cup brandy Salt and pepper, to taste ½ cup real maple syrup 1 teaspoon allspice 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1½ teaspoons fresh-ground nutmeg 2 quarts canned vegetable broth or low-sodium chicken broth

the fall and winter. The levels of flavor are sure to please everyone, and while packed with flavor, it's not too heavy, leaving room for additional courses.

The produce and maple syrup are local, which, like many chefs, I strive for in all of my dishes.

Method 1. Halve the squash, remove seeds, rinse and set seeds aside.

2. Salt 2½ quarts of water and bring to a boil. Add squash, with skin on, to water. Boil until flesh is soft. Remove from water and let cool.

3. Heat oil in stockpot and add chopped carrots, salt and pepper.

Sauté until soft. Add brandy and deglaze pan. Scrape bottom of pan as brandy is burning off alcohol.

4. Scoop flesh from squash and add to carrot mixture. Stir to combine.

Add maple syrup and stir. Add broth to the squash mixture. Bring to a

boil then simmer until soup starts to thicken. Use an immersion blender or regular blender to purée squash, carrots and stock. Add allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon to bisque.

5. Add 1 tablespoon oil to frying pan, heat, add squash seeds and toast until golden brown.

6. Ladle soup into six bowls and garnish with toasted squash seeds.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 47

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Mark Graham Executive Chef Taste, Albany

Photos by John Carl D’Annibale.

Why I chose this…

Bitter Greens with Pâté and Roasted Pear Ingredients for the dressing: 8 tablespoons Champagne vinegar 4 tablespoons Dijon mustard 3 cups grapeseed oil 3 tablespoons honey Salt and ground white pepper, to taste

for the salad: 1 head radicchio, torn 4 ounces baby arugula

2 ounces baby kale 2 ounces frisée, torn 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Sea salt, to taste 3 pears, cut in half, seeded and slow roasted 1 cup dried cranberries 1 cup water 3 tablespoons honey 6 ounces pâté or terrine of choice, diced ½ cup pine nuts, toasted

Method 1. For the vinaigrette, blend the vinegar with the mustard and honey. Slowly whisk in the oil till it emulsifies. Season to taste.

2. Combine the cranberries in the water in a small pot on medium high. When the water simmers, stir in the honey and remove from heat. Drain the water and cool the cranberries on a sheet tray.

This winter salad celebrates the balance of texture, sweet, savory and salt. The crunchy raw bitter greens, dressed in delicious olive oil and sweetened by roasted pear, are tempered by the sweet and tart cranberries. The addition of the pâté, pine nuts and Champagne vinaigrette

a recognition of the evening’s festive purpose. is

On New Year’s Eve we give humble thanks and remorseful goodbyes for the year's gifts — new, old and continuous.

3. Toss the greens together with the extra-virgin olive oil and sea salt. Mix the dressed greens with the cranberries and pine nuts.

4. Drizzle the vinaigrette on the plate. Place the green mix on each plate. Garnish each with half a pear and surround the mix with the cubed pâté pieces.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 49

Joann Hoose photography

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Brian Bowden

Photos by John Carl D’Annibale.

Executive Chef Mingle on the Avenue Saratoga Springs

Why I chose this…

In many cultures fish is viewed as lucky. It is thought

Cod and Lobster En Brodo with Black Truffles and Vegetables Ingredients for the lobster and broth: 2 1½-pound lobsters 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped 2 stalks celery, chopped 6 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced 2 tablespoons olive oil 4 cups water 1 cup white wine ½ cup cognac or sherry 1 3 / cup tomato paste 4 sprigs fresh tarragon 4 sprigs fresh thyme ½ teaspoon saffron 1 teaspoon black peppercorns 2 bay leaves Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

for the cod and vegetables: 3 pounds cod filet divided into 8-ounce portions (thoroughly check fish for bones) 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 small carrots, peeled and thinly sliced on the bias 2 medium leeks*, white and light green parts only, chopped

½ pound assorted mushrooms such as oyster, maitake and shiitake, stemmed and sliced Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley 1 small black truffle

Method 1. To cook the lobster, bring a large pot with about 2 inches of salted water to a boil. Add the lobster, cover and steam for 7 minutes.

Remove the lobster and set it aside to cool. Reserving the shells, remove the meat from the tail and claws.

Slice lobster meat, maintaining large pieces, and refrigerate. Split the body shell in half and remove the head sac. Cut the body into smaller pieces. Set aside.

2. To make the broth, heat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the lobster shells in a metal roasting pan with the onion, carrots, celery and garlic. Drizzle with the olive oil. Roast for 30 minutes, stirring twice, then transfer the shells and vegetables to a large pot.

3. Place the roasting pan over medium-high heat, add tomato

paste, stirring frequently for 2-3 minutes. Deglaze with white wine.

Add this liquid and lobster shells to a pot with 4 cups of water, thyme, peppercorns and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Skim the broth, then reduce to a simmer. Partially cover and barely simmer for 1 to 1½ hours. Skim frequently. Remove from heat. Add ½ cup of cognac or sherry wine, saffron and tarragon. Strain and season to taste with salt and pepper.

that a New Year’s feast of cod would improve the likelihood the upcoming year will be a prosperous and healthful one. To match the decadent, celebratory excesses of New Year’s Eve, I chose to pair lobster and truffles with cod.

4. For the cod, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots, leeks and mushrooms and sauté until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the lobster broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Season the cod with salt and pepper and place in the pan.

Cover and cook until just cooked through, about 8 minutes. Add the lobster meat, re-cover, remove from heat and let stand for 2 minutes.

5. Using a fish spatula, remove the cod and divide among 6 soup plates.

Arrange the vegetables and lobster meat around the fish and spoon the broth over the top. Garnish with parsley and shaved black truffles.

* NOTE: Be sure to soak leeks in cold water after chopping to remove any residual dirt.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 51

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Photos by John Carl D’Annibale.

Why I chose this…

Tenderloin Stuffed with Spinach and Roasted Red Peppers, with Mushroom-Cabernet Sauce Ingredients

Method

3 pounds center-cut beef tenderloin, trimmed 2 large red bell peppers, roasted and skin removed 12 ounces baby spinach, wilted 1 pound of your favorite mushrooms (cremini, shiitake, oyster, chanterelle, porcini) left whole if small enough, or quarter them 1 tablespoon minced garlic ¼ cup minced shallot 2½ tablespoons olive oil, divided 2 teaspoons of fresh thyme leaves 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1 cup red wine such as cabernet or merlot 1 cup veal or beef stock Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Rub red bell peppers with oil and place under hot broiler until skin is blistered. Let cool, remove skin and seeds, and cut into strips.

2. Wilt spinach under very hot water until softened and let cool.

3. Using a sharp knife, cut horizontally into beef, unfolding it like a book; do not cut all the way through. It will be about a ½ to ¾ of an inch thick. Place between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and pound lightly to an even thickness.

4. Lightly season beef with salt and pepper, then cover with spinach, leaving a ½ inch border. Add sliced pepper strips and roll up beef like a jelly roll. Tie with butcher’s twine or cotton string at 1½- to 2-inch intervals. Season with salt and pepper and brush with oil.

5. Place beef on a sheet pan and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and cook for another 20 to 30 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 125 degrees. Let rest for 15 minutes; cut crosswise into slices.

This stuffed tenderloin is perfect for your New Year’s Eve feast because it is elegant yet easy to prepare ahead of time, allowing more time with your guests. Add some roasted baby potatoes and fresh asparagus for a complete dish. You can even sprinkle with some Gorgonzola cheese.

Serve it to your guests with a full-bodied red

they will be talking about the evening for a very long time. wine, and

6. In a saucepan, combine red wine and veal or beef stock and bring to a boil until reduced to ¾ cup.

7. Heat a large skillet over mediumhigh heat. Add 1½ tablespoon oil. When oil is hot add shallots and mushrooms; cook for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and fresh thyme, cooking for 30 seconds. Add veal stock reduction bring to a quick boil and stir in butter. Season with salt and pepper. Serve sauce with beef.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 53

Get something in the mail thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fun for once!

RIGHT TO YOUR HOME

Contact: magcirculation@timesunion.com | 518lifemagazine.com

Marla Ortega Chef-Owner Illium Café, Troy

Photos by John Carl D’Annibale.

Why I chose this…

When I was a child, my dad, who has since passed away, loved Twinkies.

He was a total junk food addict. This recipe is

passing along to my own family something we used to share when I was growing up. New my way of

Twinkimisu Ingredients 6 1 ¼ 2 5 4

plain Twinkies of choice cup brewed espresso cup espresso powder 8-ounce containers mascarpone eggs, separated ounces sugar, plus 2 tablespoons 6 ounces dark rum Pinch of salt 2 tablespoons cocoa powder ¼ cup shaved dark chocolate 5 ounces chocolate sauce, such as Hershey’s

Year’s Eve at my house is about family and how we can start the new year off even better than the year before.

Method 1. Brew the espresso, place in bowl with 2 tablespoons sugar and espresso powder.

Stir and let completely cool.

2. Mix egg yolks with 2 ounces sugar, and in separate bowl whisk mascarpone until all lumps are eliminated. Add mascarpone mixture to egg mixture.

3. In another clean bowl mix egg whites, pinch of salt and remaining 2 ounces sugar until they reach a firm and fluffy texture. Add mascarpone mixture into egg whites and combine

thoroughly, then stir in the rum.

powder and shaved chocolate.

4. Dip the Twinkies quickly into the coffee-espresso mixture and lay them on greased pan.

6. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 3 hours or until set.

5. Drizzle 6 martini glasses with chocolate sauce. Fill pastry bag with mascarpone mixture and fill each martini glass halfway.

Place 1 Twinkie on top of mixture.

Continue to fill martini glasses with remainder of mascarpone mixture. Dust with cocoa

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 55

Sporting Wines

STORY AND PHOTO BY ALISTAIR HIGHET

Bargains Under $10 Other affordable finds from Italy

I

can’t think of a better time to be a wine lover in America. Granted, this thought came to me as I was driving through northern Connecticut on a bright Friday morning, looking very much forward to a decent lunch at an Italian restaurant, already sampling the wine list in my head.

But it is seriously the truth. A number of significant trends have converged to make good wine — particularly from Spain and Italy — as abundant and affordable as it has ever been.

Recently, I’ve been pulling Italian wines off the shelves and falling in love with a few, particularly a handful under $10, or others that are very well priced for the quality. Here in no particular order are the macro-economic and cultural shifts that are making this the golden age of wine drinking.

First, the culture of winemaking in the traditional winemaking regions of Europe is shifting toward greater technical sophistication. The techniques, chemistry and attention to detail that were perfected in California and Australia have bounced back to the musty old cellars and sun-drenched vineyards of Italy, Spain and France. The result is that the wine is better, livelier, more fruitful, and less idiosyncratic. For a very long time Europe sold inferior wine here and got away with it.

Those days are over. As consumers have become more savvy and demanding, winemaking culture has shifted to adapt to the benefits of new methods and to competition from Argentina and Chile.

Secondly, certain “traditions” have been abandoned for more experimentation. This is particularly true in Tuscany and other parts of Italy, where one increasingly finds Sangiovese mixed with Cabernet, or Merlot and so on. Blending isn’t new. But blending to enhance quality instead of blending to increase volume and profit is comparatively new. The rules are breaking down. This isn’t always good. One wants great Burgundy to be made with pinot noir and to come from the right plot of soil and so on, but in the consumer range, innovation is a great thing.

Third, wine consumption in Europe is falling. I haven’t been to Italy for years but in Spain — at least around Madrid — there is

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a terrible pomposity around wine that stuns me. Gin, beer, vermouth are in abundance.

But wine is expensive, pretentiously presented, and jealously poured. Statistics indicated that domestic wine consumption is falling in these countries, which means … more for us.

That is what I think we are seeing: better wine being made in greater quantities at a time when domestic wine consumption is falling, and exports are on the increase. Speaking in economics terms, there is downward price pressure at the low-to-medium end of the consumer market, thanks to increased competition and excess supply.

So I give you the Cantine Colosi Rosso ($9) from Sicily, which really blew me away and has become my house wine. The Colosi family has 24 acres in Salina, an island off the coast with volcanic soil, perfect for Nero D’Avola, the muscular grape of the island, and Nerello Mascalese, a native grape that is a cousin of Sangiovese, which adds fragrance and earthiness to the ripe power of the Nero D’Avola. “Ripe, warm, velvety fruit, balanced acidity, currants and cherries, and mulberry with black tea tannins,” is what I wrote in my notes. I’ve kept a few bottles around the house ever since.

Alistair Highet is a former editor, restaurant manager, and vine dresser, and has written about wine for over 20 years.

Here are a few others that I think are superb and bargains at the price.

Caparzo Sangiovese Toscana, 2013 ($10) This wine includes Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Alicante in the blend and is another smash at the price. Bright and cheerful, fragrant, with savory depth, easily could have been confused with a wine at twice the price.

Villa Fassini Sangiovese Cabernet, 2011 ($10) This is a Tuscany Rosso in the Super Tuscan tradition, a blend of Sangiovese with 15 percent Cabernet — a beautifully integrated and fragrant wine with raspberry, tart cherry, apple fruit, hints of mint and basil, and a juicy, velvety finish. A steal.

Antonio Vallana Spanna Colline Novaresi, 2010 ($20) Here’s a wine at twice the price, this time from Piedmont. This is 85 percent Nebbiolo, which gives it the violets, pepper, and licorice notes, with a bit of Vespolina. These wines are great accompaniments with food because of their balance of refreshing fruit with herbal, earthy notes. Very good.

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Area folks share some of their favorite seasonal memories

BY KRISTI BARLETTE

W

aking well before sunrise on Christmas morning, my sister, Cindy, and I had to wait until 7 a.m. to wake our parents. By 6:05 a.m. my patience had melted away like the snow on a warm March morning.

I’d never been more excited for Christmas morning. The year was 1983 and I’d asked for a Cabbage Patch doll.

I was notorious for short, or nonexistent, Christmas lists. But this year I’d come up with something — the kind of something I’d “visit” when we went to the store and look at

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in the ads on Sunday morning. Unfortunately for “Santa” the item I wanted was also on the list of every other little girl in the country.

When my parents finally got up, Cindy and I tore through our stocking presents and then the bigger gifts under the tree. The pea green living room carpeting was hidden with discarded wrapping paper and boxes.

I was grateful for all the gifts, but disappointed one of Xavier Roberts’ treasures wasn’t in the mix.

And then the doorbell rang, and my parents told me and my sister to answer.

On the stoop stood Santa Claus holding two boxes each wrapped in bright red paper with a big bow and a nametag — one for Cindy, the other for me.

They were our Cabbage Patch dolls. I loved and took that doll everywhere for many, many years and today, more than 30 years later, my daughter uses it.

Reminiscing is fun, especially when it comes to the holidays, so we had Capital Region notables share their favorite holiday memories.

Photos: Wreath, Yamada Taro/GettyImages; top left, Cindy Schultz; top right, Paul Buckowski; bottom left, Paul Buckowski; bottom right, John Carl D’Annibale.

Thoughts of Holidays Past

Alan Bennett Ilagan Blogger, alanilagan.com

T

he sky before the first snowfall is dark gray. Humorless and heavy, it hangs there, foreboding and grim. At any other time of the year I’d be forlorn by the signs of impending doom. Yet on this day my heart is light, giddy at the sense of what is to come, even if the way the air gets colder and damper seems to swallow up the happiness of the world.

I do not mind this because I know it’s all just a tease.

Even as a young boy, I understand, but still I want to rush things. I want it to fall immediately.

My brother and I search the sky, straining to see the formation of snow. There will be no rush to it on this day, however, and the watched sky reveals nothing but more gray.

When we are about to give up, as the chill sneaks through the laces of our boots and pinches beneath the collars of our coats, the release arrives in the first few flakes drifting down. They are the promise of beauty.

We scream with boyish delight, running and chasing the snowflakes with our tongues, thrilling at the meeting between warm flesh and each icy gift from the sky.

Inside our home, a room warmed by a fireplace awaits our return, while mugs of hot chocolate made

by Mom and dotted with marshmallows sit on a table before the fire. I do not know then that this will become one of the happiest memories of my childhood.

PHOTO BY PAUL BUCKOWSKI

Subrina Dhammi Morning anchor at WNYT, channel 13

T

here is color everywhere. Festive music fills the air. The scent of Indian spices whets my appetite. The flashes of light from sparklers and firecrackers catch my eye.

As a child, my family was known for throwing the biggest Diwali parties in my hometown. Diwali, known as the festival of lights, is a celebration of good conquering evil.

It is the biggest holiday in India. It always falls on a different date, depending on the lunar calendar. The celebration is big and it’s boisterous.

My most memorable Diwali experience was at one of my family’s par-

ties. We transformed the garage of my childhood home into a dance hall. We used decorative silk pieces of fabric to line the walls and layers of rugs to cover the floor.

I remember jumping around on the rugs piled on top of the cement garage floor, wearing a traditional blue and gold Indian dress called a lehenga, laughing and having a blast with my friends.

I was probably 7 or 8 years old. The outside of our home was covered with lights. The driveway and pathway leading to the door were lined with small lanterns. I remember eating my favorite Indian dessert during that party: my mom’s gulab jamuns, fried milky dumplings soaked in a rose-water-infused syrup. My family would spend weeks planning and preparing for this party, and in the end, all the hard work was always worth it.  PHOTO BY PAUL BUCKOWSKI

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 61

PHOTOS BY JOHN CARL D’ANNIBALE

Angelo Mazzone Owner of Mazzone Hospitality

C

hristmas is my favorite time of year. I’m a Christmas nut. I decorate my house way more than I need to — especially because you can’t see it from the road. I have four Christmas trees and one room that’s entirely Disney-themed for the holiday.

But my favorite thing about Christmas is Christmas Eve. It’s so important in my family. Years ago, it was at Grandma’s house; then my mother’s and now mine for the last 15 to 20 years.

The house is crazy and everything is decorated and Santa Claus is there. Everyone gets

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dressed and we all open gifts.

Christmas Eve is basically our Christmas. I have my children and my grandchildren there and we have a huge meal. I’ll have a minimum of 40 guests, but sometimes as many as 70. We do the Feast of the Seven Fishes.

I do the cooking, although I have a lot of stuff prepped in the restaurants. I am pretty much the cook and my son Matt helps. He will help cook. We joke it’s our job to cook all the food and the women clean it up.

It’s a great night. We’ve been doing it for years and it’s our tradition. No matter how many things change in all our lives we’ve always done it and we’ll always continue to do Christmas Eve as a family.

Matt Baumgartner Owner of Howes & Baum clothing line, as well as numerous restaurants in the Capital Region

M

y favorite holiday memory includes my grandmother (Rachel Sciortino), her 1980 Buick Park Avenue, and about two feet of snow.

Similar to how Albany has the “Holiday Lights” in Washington Park, in Utica we had “Trinkaus Manor”… a stunning restaurant in Oriskany, Oneida County, that put on the greatest holiday lights show the world has ever seen.

This one evening, my grandmother decided to take her absolute favorite grandchild of all … me… on a surprise weeknight drive to see the spectacular lights at Trinkaus Manor.

(The fact it was a weeknight is worth noting because that was an unusual, special surprise.

Usually I had practice, then homework, then fighting with my brothers.)

Fifteen minutes into the drive, it started to

PHOTO BY LORI VAN BUREN

snow really hard. A typical, worried grandparent might turn the car around. Not my grandmother. She kept driving her gigantic Buick Park Avenue at a glacial pace through the beautiful snowstorm out to Trinkaus Manor. We talked. We laughed. We couldn’t see two feet in front of us.

I think what makes the memory so important was that this was a time before cell phones, and to have my grandmother’s undi-

vided attention, as she always seemed to give us, made me feel special.

My grandmother is now 93 years old, and there isn’t enough motion sickness medication in the world to get her through my driving. … Plus, Trinkaus Manor burned to the ground. Although our holiday trips to Trinkaus Manor are a thing of the past, that one winter night with my grandmother will always remain my favorite holiday memory.

Tess Collins Owner of McGeary’s in Albany

M

y favorite moment is when my daughter started to believe in Santa Claus.

My one brother was staying with us that year and my other brother would visit often. We decorated the tree and we made cookies and she wrote a letter to Santa and then went to the mall to visit him. We read Christmas stories and listened to Christmas music. We celebrated for the whole month.

She didn’t even really have many gifts on her list. The only thing she ever asked for were arts and crafts. It was more about the excitement for her than anything else and it was exciting for me to see her reaction to everything — and to have my brothers and everyone together.  PHOTO BY MICHAEL P. FARRELL

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 63

Alan Chartock President and CEO of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

M

y favorite memory was as a child. My father was a hard worker, but he took time off to make potato latkes. He would prepare them with this grate — it had four sides and each one had different apertures. Ev-

ery once in a while he would bloody his knuckles.

He would cook them in lard — Crisco. It’ll probably shorten my life, but I can’t remember anything more delicious in my life than his potato latkes.

My wife insists it was for Hanukkah, but I’m not so sure it was for Hanukkah, or just around the holidays. I just remember it really was a simple but wonderful treat.

PHOTO BY JOHN CARL D’ANNIBALE

Brian Cody Cohost of the Fly Morning Rush on FLY 92.3

C

hristmas for my sister and me was always amazing no matter how tough times were for our family growing up. …

Santa (somehow, some way) always brought us what we wanted. I remember having a difficult time sleeping on Christmas Eve, but there was no better feeling than getting a few hours of sleep, waking up and realizing it was time to open up presents.

At 4:30, maybe 5 in the morning, I would tiptoe into my parents’ room and then hop on the bed with them. They always woke up with the biggest smile on their faces and, with coffee in hand, made their way into the living room with my sister, Sherri, and me.

As we tore through presents, I could see how genuinely happy they were for us as we opened our gifts. As each gift gradually got a little bigger our excitement grew. My parents always saved the “biggest” item for last. That present was always “hidden” rather than under the tree.

Just when we thought we had opened up everything, the bike, Atari 2600 or Castle Greyskull would just sort of magically appear in the kitchen … our bedroom … on the porch, etc. It happened this way every year, but we were always surprised. I actually think my mom and dad enjoyed that moment more than we did.

PHOTO BY PAUL BUCKOWSKI

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Lydia Kulbida News anchor, WTEN

I

Lydia Kulbida’s holiday memory photo was staged at Proctor’s Theatre in Schenectady. Costumes and nutcracker props provided by the Northeast Ballet Company.

n December 2009 my girls and I were in The Nutcracker together at Proctors in Schenectady.

The Nutcracker tradition started with my oldest daughter several years earlier. My oldest daughter had been a part of the cast for several years. The first year she was a mouse; then she had a different role each year following.

In 2009, Irene was 13 and Roma was 10 and they both auditioned. I had some time, and I have a dance background (ballet and folk), so I auditioned, too. I thought it would be a fun thing for us all to do together. We all got cast in the party scene, which was convenient for rehearsals.

I was one of the guests and did a big waltz. My older daughter was the governess for the parents

hosting the party and my youngest daughter was a doll.

Even though I’d never been in The Nutcracker before, I’d been dancing since I was 6 and always loved watching it. Then our daughters started performing in the show, which we loved. Having all three of us in it together was quite a treat.

The Nutcracker is now our Christmas “thing.” We have 20 different large nutcrackers around the house at Christmas and about one dozen Nutcracker ornaments. We also listen to the soundtrack in the car and watch the DVDs and read the book at home. When the girls were little, they bought my husband a Nutcracker tie.

I have a Nutcracker sweater that my oldest uses for those ugly sweaters contests. Even though we no longer perform, we feel those memories around the house.

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F

or everyone from serious bibliophiles to pleasure readers and those who read to children, books are one of the most thoughtful holiday gifts.

Here are suggestions for books in all genres, from the people who know them best: area bookstore owners and librarians.

From Andrea Simmons, director, Ballston Spa Public Library I’d Know You Anywhere, My Love

by Nancy Tillman (ages newborn - 5) Beautifully illustrated picture book that stresses the idea that everyone is special, unique and loved.

Fortunately, the Milk

by Neil Gaiman (ages 7-10) An out-of-this world adventure accompanied with fantastic black and white illustrations.

By the Book

Eleanor & Park

by Rainbow Rowell (ages 12-16) An exploration of young misfit love.

Holiday gift suggestions for the reader in your life Orphan Train

by Christina Baker Kline (teen and adult fiction) Multi-generational story about women trying to find a sense of home.

The Goldfinch

by Donna Tartt (adult fiction) An epic story of loss, survival and selfreinvention.

From Susan Novotny, owner, The Book House, The Little Book House, Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany

Feel like we missed something great?

Find us on Facebook (facebook. com/518Life) or Twitter (@518LifeMag) — and let us know!

66 518 LIFE

Flora and the Penguin

by Molly Idle (ages 3 – 6) Award-winning author/illustrator Molly Idle has gifted us with a sequel to Flora and the Flamingo.

These are the sweetest wordless picture books on friendship since Good Dog Carl!

Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods

by Rick Riordan (ages 8 – 12) The Greek Myths as you’ve never seen them before, narrated by the irreverent Percy himself, exquisitely illustrated by the talented John Rocco.

Brown Girl Dreaming

by Jacqueline Woodson. (ages 10 and up) Jacqueline Woodson reveals her life, growing up in the 1960s and ’70s in both the North and South, in a powerful, poignant memoir in verse.

Egg & Spoon

by Gregory Maguire (ages 12 and up) An exciting epic adventure, set in Tsarist Russia and drawing elements from Russian folk tales, featuring a most fabulous Baby Yaga.

Afterworlds

by Scott Westerfeld (ages 14 and up) An enthralling story-within-a story.

From Christopher Linendoll, owner, Northshire Books, Saratoga Springs Danny Clinch: Still Moving

by Danny Clinch (photos/coffee table book) A collection of rock and roll photography.

This book is big and beautiful. Featuring portraits, live performance, and candid photos of some of the biggest names in rock including Bob Dylan, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, and many more.

Lock In

by John Scalzi (adult fiction) This is a near future thriller that’s a compelling page-turner. At the same time, it’s chock full of ideas — on medical ethics, science, gender and crime — and it’s laughout-loud funny.

The Paying Guests

by Sarah Waters (adult fiction) What starts as the genteel story of a young woman and her mother taking in lodgers at their large suburban home in post-World War I England turns into a psychological drama about whether or not love and passion can withstand the dangers of doubt and trauma.

Off the Sidelines

by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (adult non-fiction) Senator Gillibrand writes to motivate all people, but especially women, to get “off the sidelines” and get involved in what happens in your country. Not only is she our state senator, but she is a witty, relatable, working mom from Albany who believes that women can do it all.

From Louise Grieco, Public Information Specialist, Bethlehem Public Library Mix It Up

by Herve Tullet (children) Touch here, tilt there, and laugh a lot, to mix colors and learn about their properties.

LEGO Chain Reactions: Design and Build Amazing Moving Machines

by Pat Murphy and the Scientists of Klutz Labs (ages 8 and up) LEGO fans will enjoy creating their own chain reaction machines while developing great STEM skills along the way.

One Pot: 120+ Easy Meals from Your Skillet, Slow Cooker, Stockpot, and More by the editors of Martha Stewart Living (adult non-fiction) With the busy lifestyles of today’s parents, this is the perfect cookbook for the chef in the house.

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (adult non-fiction) This heavily illustrated companion book to the PBS documentary series takes a look at one of America’s greatest political families and how the public service callings of Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor affected our country in the 20th century.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things

by Patrick Rothfuss (adult fiction) The third in this riveting series of fantasy novels will please any Game of Thrones reader.

From Daniel Driggs, owner Latham Book Barn, Latham Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel

by Virginia Lee Burton (children) When I was a child in the late ’50s, Captain Kangaroo read this on air, as he did other books.

It has remained one of my favorite books.

The Man in the Iron Mask

by Alexandre Dumas (adult fiction) Dumas was the Tom Clancy/Lee Child of the 1800s, action and adventure.

A Knight in Shining Armor

by Jude Deveraux, (romance) Rated one of the best romance books of all time.

Benjamin Franklin

by Walter Isaacson (adult non-fiction) Isaacson knows about history and also knows how to make it interesting.

Any Chicken Soup for the Soul book (all ages) There are dozens of titles including pre-teen and teen of these inspirational books. These feel-good, true stories warm the heart.

From Richard J. Naylor, director, William K. Sanford Town Library, Loudonville The Day the Crayons Quit

by Drew Daywalt (children) This story will keep you laughing and encourage your child to be creative and use all the colors in the crayon box!

Cam Jansen and the Joke House Mystery

by David Adler (ages 8-12) One of the prizes for the local joke-telling contest has gone missing. Will Cam be able to solve the mystery or will he be laughed of The Joke House?

The Walk On

by John Feinstein (young adult) Alex Myers, star athlete, must move to a new town and prove that he has star potential but that may not be as easy as he thinks. Alex’s new school already has a star quarterback who doesn’t make things easy for Alex. Will he ever get the chance to prove his talent?

Lila

by Marilynne Robinson (adult fiction) Robinson’s new book is set in the same town as two of her multi-award-winning novels, Gilead and Home. As a prequel to Gilead, Lila is the backstory of the much younger wife of the Reverend John Ames: her problematic childhood and youth, her courtship by a much older man, and the events that led up to the birth of her son — the son addressed by John Ames in the epistolary Gilead.

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark For the Ivy League But Did Not Survive

by Jeff Hobbs (adult non-fiction) Peace, who went from inner city Newark to studying molecular biochemistry and biophysics at Yale, couldn’t escape the lure of the streets. The book is written by his Yale roommate trying to understand all the reasons why such a brilliant young man didn’t — and couldn’t — make it.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 67

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The Best Records of the Year

Here’s what we were listening to in 2014

BY JOHN ADAMIAN

Photo: GettyImages/Vetta.

A

rtists still made records in 2014, but much of the conversation seemed to first be about how the music was delivered, and the question of what the music sounded like was secondary. Most notably, in September U2 released a long-gestating album by stealthy delivery into people’s iTunes accounts. Many music fans felt violated; some likened the album, Songs of Innocence, to a computer virus. (It was allegedly the biggest record release in history.) And then Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke came out with a solo record, Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, releasing the album via BitTorrent. Former White Stripes frontman Jack White, made news by releasing an album that broke 20-year records for vinyl sales, enticing fans with a deluxe edition featuring hidden surprises accessible only to those with a turntable. Everyone seems interested in reinventing the business of manufacturing and distributing music; meanwhile, streaming services such as Spotify gain more subscribers while the debate continues about how artists can survive with the miniscule royalty structure derived from streaming songs.

One might be inclined to doubt the future of recorded music, except that 2014 has reaffirmed that deeply weird, idiosyncratic, stubbornly anachronistic and relentlessly noncommercial music still has its place. And it remains relatively easy to find excellent, new and under-exposed music. I spend about eight hours a day at my desk, and probably six of those hours are spent listening to music, much of it new.

Here are 10 of the best records I heard in 2014. 

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 69

Brothers And Sisters of The Eternal Son (Secretly Canadian) Seattle-based singer and songwriter Damien Jurado had a dream several years ago. It was as vivid as a little movie trailer, and it seemed to tell a story of a man who left his life behind to join a religious commune whose members were in the desert awaiting the second coming of Jesus in a UFO, or something like that. Jurado explored that dream for his exceptional 2012 album Maraqopa, and then when it came time to work on a new batch of songs, he found that he needed to return to that dream. Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son is a continuation of the enigmatic story, with Jurado singing haunting spare folk songs, continuing to explore touches of hypnotic psychedelic rock, and moving naturally too into a kind of pure Brill Building pop by the time the album closes. Death and deliverance never seem far from Jurado’s mind, but the subjects always result in moving melodies and lyrics.

THE PAPERCUTS Life Among the Savages (Easy Sound Recording Co./Memphis Industries) Papercuts frontman and songwriter Jason Quever may have something in common with Damien Jurado. The San Francisco-based Quever was in fact raised in a cult and he’s already recorded a full album centered on the idea of an alien invasion (2009’s You Can Have What You Want). The Papercuts zero in on a very specific aesthetic, one that is based on the wash of organ chords and slow, rolling tom-heavy drum beats, mixing hints of jazz and gospel into the band’s ethereal sound. This is a band that knows how to use Mellotron and string sounds coupled with acoustic guitar. The Papercuts make sad, subdued, rainyweather baroque pop of the highest order.

NAOMI PUNK Television Man (Captured Tracks)

Few bands can pull off muscle and emotion balanced together, or rhythmic complexity coupled with an organic sense of form, or me70 518 LIFE

lodic singing along with punk urgency. Many people won’t get past the abrasive surface or the thorny odd-time accents to appreciate the sensitivity that seems baked into the music of this young trio from the Pacific Northwest.

You can hear strains of math rock, cerebral post-punk, DIY noise and cathartic grunge in these songs, but they are almost entirely their own thing. There’s a pure musicality that cuts through all of the raw force and unpolished or intentional primitivism of this band. It’s rare to hear music that is in some ways unlike anything else and yet so hard to stop listening to.

Haggard, Johnny Paycheck and Loretta Lynn made their classics, then you might feel like 21st-century country is all hat and no cattle, as they say. But Sturgill Simpson — with his sturdy and tender Kentucky baritone, and his denim-and-belt-buckle songs about damaged love, hours on the road, and money trouble — could lure you back.

THE WAR ON DRUGS Lost In The Dream (Secretly Canadian)

BECK Morning Phase (Capitol)

For all of his whiplash eclecticism, Beck’s records have often hovered in one of three zones — the crazy post-everything pastiche of hip-hop, the samba-fueled grooves of Brazilian Tropicalia, or a broad kind of Americana that can veer from folk and old time, to country and soft rock. Morning Phase is on the super-soft singer-songwriter side, almost mirroring the wonderful string-enhanced downer vibe of his 2002 record Sea Change. If you’re not careful, you might mistake Morning Phase as a kind of song-by-song response or re-enactment of that earlier record, which was one the high points in Beck’s consistently solid output since “Loser” was a hit 20 years ago. The moods, keys, tempos and instrumentation all point back, but if that older record was about a relationship falling apart and the desire to blow town leaving wreckage in the rearview mirror, the new one seems more in line with waking up in a state of acceptance and peace. These songs share a sleepy emotional metabolism with the music of Nick Drake, music that is widely admired but infrequently emulated with success.

STURGILL SIMPSON Meta Modern Sounds In Country Music (High Top) At this stage of the game, few were expecting anyone to come along and present themselves as a “savior” of country music in 2014. Country music doesn’t necessarily need saving; after all, it’s one of the most popular formats in America. Whether modern country is to your liking is a separate question. If you stopped listening after George Jones, Merle

If Beck’s newest record evoked Nick Drake, the War On Drugs brought to mind Don Henley. I want to say “in a good way,” after that last sentence, but I’m not sure Don Henley can be brought to mind in anything other than a bad way for most. And yet, somehow this Philly band transmuted the excrescences of ’80s production, bloated, coked-out, aging boomer laments, and turned the sound into a controlled, yet psychedelic lunar exploration. An emotional vulnerability emerges from the carefully layered feedback and guitar murk. There are loads of guitars on this record, but, oddly, maybe not a single “riff,” meaning that the songs succeed based on texture and melody rather than any kind of crunch or muscle. By the record’s end a sort of dreamlike swirl sets in; ultimately the War On Drugs have as much in common with the brooding songs of the Cure as they do with any of the Eagles.

Album covers courtesy of Amazon.com. Local albums courtesy of the artists.

DAMIEN JURADO

ELISA AMBROGIO The Immoralist (Drag City)

filtering into the digital sphere. One can only hope that artists like Elgie Brown, who has two songs on this set, are getting investigated and entire collections devoted to them are in the works.

The Local Edge Here’s (some of) the best local music from 2014

BY BRIANNA SNYDER

Elisa Ambrogio is the frontwoman for poetic noise-rock outfit the Magik Markers. Here, on her solo debut, the noise is still there, but it’s all dialed back and brushed on in a different, more delicate way, allowing her voice, which can be mistaken for slacker deadpan, to convey a world of bruised sensitivity and intelligence. The moody, echo-heavy and multitracked vocals lend a girl-group element to this record, but a slow-drip minimalist drone creates an ominous and weird through-line. This is the rare music that is equal parts high art and bubblegum pop.

VARIOUS ARTISTS The Soul of Designer Records (Big Legal Mess) Memphis has always been known as a musical gold mine. It’s smack in the middle of all kinds of cross-currents of American music. The ancestral musical DNA drifts up from the Mississippi Delta, to the east there’s Nashville. There’s a reason Elvis, Big Star, Al Green, Stax, Charlie Rich, Sun Studios and a hundred other musical giants either wound up there or emerged from the city’s scene. Those mysterious ingredients might explain why this four-disc compilation of little-known gospel recorded on the Designer Records label in Memphis in the ’60s and ’70s is so raw and soulful. That and the fact that the Designer Records house band was an integrated group of players who brought a little bit of secular flavor, whiffs of country and pockets of soul, and even rock to these sacred tracks. One of the other things that was unusual about Designer Records is that it was a custom label, meaning that singers, preachers and groups could come in with a song and pay a fee that would cover recording, including the use of the house band, and pressing of a 45.

So many of these songs were ultra-limitededition singles only now

SPOON They Want My Soul (Loma Vista) Based on the success of Spoon’s music, one gets the feeling that a talented and driven musician only has to obsessively study the great recordings of the past, letting the influences stew and percolate in order to make yet more great records. But managing to distill the essence of the Cars, Sam Cooke, Elvis Costello, Hall and Oates, or the Stones isn’t as easy as it might sound.

Spoon has always been a band whose songs are about architecture — the solidity of a beat, the cross-hatching interplay of guitar parts, the force of a simple bass line, a judiciously placed shaker or handclap and layered backing vocals. Front man Britt Daniel keeps his lyrics just enigmatic enough, hitting the spot where you think you might know what he’s talking about (“I don’t make time for holy rollers”) but then after repeated listens you realize: maye not, and that’s partly why the songs remain durable.

FKA TWIGS LP1 (Young Turks) R&B, soul, hip-hop, and pop have all gotten more avant garde in recent years. Meaning there’s a willingness to push principles to their limit. FKA Twigs has taken the urge to pare away about as far as it’s likely to go.

There are beats and pulses, and these songs work on a dance floor, but there’s also an emptiness, a vocal austerity approaching church music at times. She doesn’t seem to be pushing herself too hard one minute, and then another minute the singer lets loose with a songbird-like high note that brings to mind Mariah Carey. It’s all weird, almost spooky, but sexy too. Even a little dirty. At her best, FKA Twigs evokes the high-song ambitions of Kate Bush coupled with the polymorphous pop of Prince.

Feel like we missed something great?

Find us on Facebook, facebook.com/518Life or Twitter, @518LifeMag. Let us know!

W

e’re fans of all music, from all places, which is why we feel so lucky to have so much diverse, interesting music here in the Capital Region. And this year was pretty fruitful for exciting new sounds.

“There’s been a wealth of regional CDs this year,” says David Malachowski, a touring guitarist and freelance writer for the Times Union. Malachowski is a loyal follower of the local music scene, writing frequently about new music in the area. “[There’s] world-class local music to make us all proud,” he says. “Seek out these folks, get their records, and show up at their live shows as well. It matters.”

These are some of Malachowski’s favorites.

HARD SOUL Heart Of Plaster “A well thoughtout, well actualized collection of potential pop hits impeccably produced,” Malachowski says.

WILD ADRIATIC Big Suspicious “Blues rock wizards Wild Adriatic released the explosive Big Suspicious, showing that they can write as well as they play.”

HANK SOTO How About Me! “North Country guitarist Hank Soto, aka the nicest guy in the world, put out How About Me!, showing his impressive six-string skills in many diverse styles.”

TAINA ASILI Y BANDA REBELDE Fruit of Hope “The exotic world music of Taina Asili y Banda Rebelde offers not only gorgeous sounds, but a social conscious and an underlying yearning for truth.”

ASHLEY SOFIA Love and Fury “Another North Country artist, singer/songwriter Ashley Sofia writes and sings music like they used to on Love and Fury, with depth and grace and heart, and it’s easy to tell, for her, she doesn’t want to be a musician, she has to be one.”

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 71

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Trainer Tips

BY BRIANNA SNYDER | PHOTOS BY EMILY JAHN

The Tricep Pushup with

Latoya Taitt

DON’TS: Raise your head too low or too high — keep it aligned with your spine and controlled Arch your back or loosen your core

Latoya Taitt is a Beachbody coach who holds online fitness and nutrition courses and support groups. She also teaches PiYo, a lowimpact, high-intensity workout that blends the best moves from yoga and pilates, at the Albany Ballroom School Dance Studio in Albany.

Reach her at facebook.com/BeFitBeFly or at latoyataitt@gmail.com.

Flail your elbows Put your butt in the air — keep it level with your spine

Tricep push-ups target and work the muscle in the back of the arm. They help eliminate arm flab, aka “bat wings” or the slightly more colorful “bingo wings.”

Tricep push-ups can be done on the knees, toes or even a variation.

1 2

GET INTO PUSHUP POSITION.

SPREAD FINGERS APART and position hands with fingers pointing away from you. Shoulders, elbows and wrists should all be in a straight line.

3 4

TIGHTEN YOUR ABS AND BUTT.

HEAD SHOULD BE IN ALIGNMENT with spine and eyes looking about 10 inches ahead on the floor.

5

SLOWLY LOWER YOUR CHEST toward the ground, pretending as though you have very important

papers under your armpits and you do not want to drop them. Your elbows should closely graze your body and point directly behind you.

6 7

PUSH YOURSELF BACK UP to the starting position.

REPEAT.

518LIFEMAGAZINE.COM 73

FYI with

Barry Richman

Barry was once a master timpanist.

Owner of Pearl Grant Richmans

BY BRIANNA SNYDER | PHOTO BY COLLEEN INGERTO

B

arry Richman grew up in his father’s store, originally Richmans Card Shop before being merged with a gift shop two doors down called Pearl Grant. Today, Richman runs Pearl Grant Richmans, and his grown children help out with the family business. The Stuyvesant Plaza-based shop has been in operation for more than 50 years.

When Richman isn’t manning the store, he’s involved with the Albany Symphony Orchestra. He was a percussionist at the New England Conservatory — a master timpanist, in fact.

He’s also the founder of the Empire State Youth Orchestras.

We asked him a few Proustian (or Proustianinspired) questions.

What’s your current mood? I would have to say optimistically excited about the upcoming holiday season, in my business and personally. I feel prepared, better prepared with my merchandise mix. Especially in American-made products, which we’ve taken a very firm stance on. I would say 75 percent of the store now is American- or Canadian-made. Do you have a Facebook pet peeve? Yes, I do, actually. I’d say my biggest peeve on Facebook is getting posts from people who go on rants, posting nasty, racist political comments.

When I’m on Facebook that’s not what I like to see.

But on the other hand I really do enjoy seeing what people are doing, especially in the arts community.

If you could go back in time and change one thing in your life, what would it be? I don’t know if I should even admit this. I would say — how do I put this? — I would’ve studied more in high school and early school. I was a daydreamer and I was not ambitious like I am now. And I definitely would have studied a lot more. What changed? I guess my outlook on going into business with my father. And studying music really gave me an impetus to practice and look forward to playing in a symphony orchestra. I knew I was going to be going into the business because unless you play in the Boston Symphony Orchestra or the New York Philharmonic, [being a musician is] not exactly the most luxurious lifestyle.

74 518 LIFE

Do you have a hero? I would have to say my father, actually. Because he wasn’t well-educated and he had a great vision. He’s just so incredible with people. He just has such a great rapport and he just taught me everything about customer service.

What was the last thing you ate or drank? It was smoked-salmon, tomato and avocado for breakfast just a couple of hours ago.

What do people come looking for at Pearl Grant? Unique gifts and gourmet foods. And I have to say women’s apparel. Jewelry, especially jewelry. What’s your secret to success? Always trying to resolve something in a positive way, even if it’s against store policy. Trying to get a yes out of something, never having to say no.

Or saying, “What can I do to resolve this in a positive manner?” What have you been listening to lately? Last night, I happened to listen to Gounod’s Faust. What are you reading right now? I’m reading a very fancy food magazine called Art Culinaire, which comes out four times a year. It’s a magnificent publication and I have all 112 copies of it. Oh, wow.

Are you a big cook? I love to cook, yes. It’s my passion, along with music, of course. What’s your favorite cuisine? New American and fusion-type dishes, right now. Although I love French and Italian cooking as well. I like to prepare great classic French dishes because they’re actually a cinch to prepare and they’re very, very tasty. If you could live anywhere, where would you live? New York City. What’s the first thing you notice in a person? If they’re looking me in the eye when they speak to me. Do you have a motto? I’d have to say “live every day like it was your last.” If you could choose how you’ll die, what would you pick? That’s interesting, I thought I was immortal. I’m gonna die? What are you grateful for? I’m grateful for so much I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve had such an incredible life.

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