EXPLORE Winter 2013

Winter 2013

A Times Union Publication

THINGS TO DO. PLACES TO GO.

Currier and Ives:

A Look at

America

plus travel · outdoors · music · events calendar · and more!

Come Explore Bennington Vermont this Winter!

Only 30 miles from the bottom of Hoosick Street in Troy to the center of Bennington.

NORTH BENNINGTON

& Peng uin Plung e ry 26th, 2013 Sa turday, Janua

Events throughout North Bennington, VT including the Penguin Plunge at Lake Paran Boat Launch!

Family Events • Kids’ Carnival Pet Parade at Whitman’s • Ice Carving Contest Maple on Snow • And Much More!

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FINE ART ~ PERFORMANCES ~ COVERED BRIDGE MUSEUM

Plus After Plunge Warming Party at VAE

Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce

(802) 447-3311 • www.Bennington.com

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Bennington Museum Exhibits November 24 through December 30 - Festival

of Trees Around the World

Community-created exhibition of uniquely designed and decorated holiday trees.

February 1 through May 7 -

“Engage”

Juried exhibition of art created by Vermont artists with various disabilities.

Organized by VSA in Vermont.

2011 Festival of Trees Vignette

February 1 through May 7 -“More

Like You Than Not”

Complimenting “Engage” and recognizing that artistic talent and creativity knows no boundaries.

May Suydam Palmer, 1901 Fredrick W. MacMonnies Oil on canvas

February 1 through February 28 -

Annual Student Art Show

Celebrating the art created by students in public and private schools in Bennington and surrounding communities.

March 14 through May 27 - Victorian

Extreme: Fancy Work 1850-1900

An eclectic group of decorative art objects from the museum’s collection that explore the wilder side of Victorian aesthetics.

Winter, 2003 Merrill Densmore (1943-2006) Acrylic on masonite, 24 x 32 inches Courtesy GRACE (Grass Roots Art and Community Effort), Hardwick, VT

Permanent Exhibits

1924 Wasp Touring Car

Largest public collection of Grandma Moses paintings and memorabilia 1924 Wasp Touring Car Bennington Flag - One of the oldest “stars and stripes” in existence Art from the 18th century to present

Bennington Museum 75 Main Street Bennington, VT 05201 802-447-1571 www.benningtonmuseum.org

making pottery locally for 64 years OPEN EVERY DAY | 324 County St, Bennington 800.205.8033 | benningtonpotters.com

from our hands to yours — come see it made!

The Spirit of Christmas Year-Round • Decorations • Collectables • Ornaments Open Daily 9:30am - 5:30pm (802) 362-2516

www.xmasdays.com

Publisher George Hearst III

LENOX, MA

BERNSTEIN THEATRE NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 30, 2012

Editorial Janet Reynolds Executive Editor

THE SANTALAND DIARIES

Brianna Snyder Associate Editor Design Tony Pallone Design Director Colleen Ingerto, Emily Jahn Designers

by DAVID SEDARIS adapted for the stage by JOE MANTELLO directed by TONY SIMOTES featuring DAVID JOSEF HANSEN

Contributing Writers John Adamian, Phil Brown, Claire Duffet, Michael Hamad, Stacey Morris, Kathleen Norton, Deborah Renfrew, Gillian Scott Contributing Photographers Phil Brown, Colleen Ingerto, Jim Muller, Josh Wilson

JOHN DOUGLAS THOMPSON

Sales Kathleen Hallion Vice President, Advertising

TINA PACKER PLAYHOUSE DECEMBER 14 - 15, 2012

KING KING JOHN

Tom Eason Manager, Display Advertising Craig Eustace Retail Sales Manager

By W WILLIAM ILLIAM SSHAKESPEARE HAKESPEARE / Directed Directed by

by TOD RANDOLPH Featuring THE CONSERVATORY AT SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY

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BERNSTEIN THEATRE FEBRUARY 1 - MARCH 24, 2013

THE THE LIAR LIAR

TimesUnion.com Paul Block Executive Producer

directed directed by KEVIN KEVIN G G.. C COLEMAN OLEMAN featuring a cast of stalwart Company favorites and newcomers

by DAVID IVES / adapted from the comedy by PIERRE CORNEILLE

Explore is published four times per year. If you are interested in receiving home delivery of Explore magazine, please call: 518.454.5454.

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The entire contents of this magazine are copyright 2012 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.

contents in every issue 6 Calendar of Events » Winter 2012-13 14 Our Backyard » Local gems to visit 34 Off the Beaten Path » Cleveland, Ohio 38 Just the Two of Us » New York’s Finger Lakes 42 Last Call » Lake George Mayor Robert M. Blais on Pawleys Island, S.C.

page 14 — photo courtesy Tang Museum / Photo by Arthur Evans

features art 16 The Here and Now » Currier and Ives’ lithographs offer a look into 19th-century nostalgia and history MUSIC 18 Yo-Yo Ma » On life, death and music

page 18 — photo By Todd Rosenberg Photography

theater 20 Condensed Wizardry » A send-up of the Harry Potter series outdoors 26 Winter Wonderland » Camping doesn’t have to end when summer does 30 Mountaineering 101 » Kilburn Slide is a good teacher

page 26

online only

— photo By Jim Muller

Judy Collins talks about musical interpretation and the songs she writes for herself. Read the story at timesunion.com/explore.

on the cover “American Homestead Winter,” published by Currier and Ives in 1868. Read the story on page 16.

— photo courtesy albany institute of history and art

page 38 — photo By Richard Lovrich/TImes Union Archive

timesunion.com/explore 5

calendar winter 2012-13 Music Classical Cathedral of All Saints 62 S. Swan St., Albany cathedralofallsaints.org (518) 465-1342 Tuesday, Dec. 11: “Messiah.” 7 p.m. Woodrow Bynum leads The Cathedral of All Saints Choir of Men & Boys, and a period instrument orchestra in a performance of Handel’s masterpiece.

The work, sung in its entirety, features guest soloists.

Tuesday, Mar. 12: Mozart Requiem and Solemn Vespers.

7 p.m. Woodrow Bynum leads the Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, orchestra and guest soloists in a double bill of two of Mozart’s choral masterpieces.

Emma Willard School Kiggins Hall 285 Pawling Ave., Troy friendsofchambermusic.org (518) 273-8135 Saturday, Nov. 17: Friends of Chamber Music — Cecilia String Quartet. 8 p.m. Min-Jeong Koh, violin Sarah Nematallah, violin Caitlin Boyle, viola Rachel Desoer, cello, perform works by Haydn, Webern, Dvorak and others.

Sunday, Feb. 17: Friends of Chamber Music — Tokyo String Quartet (Farewell Tour). 3 p.m.

The Hildegard Medicus Memorial Concert. After 44 years, the Tokyo String Quartet is dissolving in 2013.

Saturday, March 16: Friends of Chamber Music — New Century Saxophone Quartet. 8 p.m.

EMPAC (The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) 110 8th St., Troy empac.rpi.edu (518) 276-3921 Tuesday, Nov. 13: Yegor Shevtsov. 7 p.m. A solo piano work-in-progress performance featuring two 20th-century masterpieces: Debussy’s Etudes and Boulez’s Incises.

Saturday, Nov. 17: Dr. Elie During. 5 p.m. Glenn Gould’s obsession with control, his crystalline, X-ray renderings of the contrapuntal texture of Bach’s fugues, may seem miles away from John Cage’s commitment to the principles of indeterminacy and interconnectedness in the composition and performance of experimental music.

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Saturday, Nov. 17: Rensselaer Contemporary Music Ensemble: Cage/Gould. 8 p.m. A concert of classical and contemporary music directed by Michael Century, with Holland Hopson, and featuring Rensselaer student and faculty performers. Program to include compositions ranging across the career of John Cage and a partial reenactment of Glenn Gould’s final piano recital in 1964, combined with a sound collage by Century and Hopson.

Friday, Nov. 30: Jennifer Koh. 8 p.m. Solo violin recital contrasting the music of J.S. Bach with newly commissioned works by contemporary composers.

1st Presbyterian Church 369 Warren St., Hudson Saturday, Nov. 17: Bard at the Landing: “Concordium.”

6 p.m. “Concordium,” a Bardbased Harmonie wind ensemble coached by CFO oboist Stephen Hammer, performs the music of Krommer, Beethoven and Mozart.

Saturday, Dec. 22: “Messiah” sing. 4 p.m. Annual Community Sing of Handel’s Messiah Claverack Landing Ensemble, Gwen Gould, conductor with student participants from our Take a Seat mentoring program and surprise soloists. Music provided, refreshments served during the intermission.

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center 14 Castle St., Great Barrington, Mass. mahaiwe.org (413) 528-6415 Sunday, Dec. 9: Tragicomedia — A Baroque Holiday Celebration.

2 p.m. With its unique constellation of leading instrumentalists and singers, Tragicomedia has exerted a strong influence in the field of early music since 1987. Featuring rarely heard baroque instruments (mandolin, lirone, chitarrone, viola da gamba) for a rich palette of instrumental color, the program offers the repertoire of the Italian Cantata — of Handel, Steffani and Barbara Strozzi.

Massry Center for the Arts Kathleen McManus Picotte Recital Hall 1002 Madison Ave., Albany Sunday, Nov 18: The College of Saint Rose Women’s Chorale Concert. 7 p.m. This concert marks the dedication of the new Rodgers Organ as well as

the 5-year anniversary for the Women’s Chorale. Guest performing will be the Holy Names Academy Women’s Choir.

Sunday, Jan. 27: Anna Lee. 3 p.m. Anna Lee — Solo Violin Concert, Presented with Renaissance Musical Arts Saturday, March 2: Guitar Foundation of America Winner Vladimir Gorbach. 7:30 p.m.

Presented with the Classical Guitar Society of Upstate New York.

Sunday, March 10: Piano Duet Concert with Ponochevny Zyl. Presented with Renaissance Musical Arts.

Palace Theatre 19 Clinton Ave., Albany palacealbany.com (518) 465-3334 Saturday, Dec. 1: Albany Symphony presents Beethoven’s Fifth. 7:30 p.m. Pre-concert talk is at 6:30 in the Palace Theatre.

The Albany Symphony welcomes guest conductor Daniel Hege and clarinetist David Shifrin for a program of major works by Mozart and Beethoven, as well as a recent work by Joan Tower.

Saturday, Dec. 8 - Sunday, Dec. 9: Albany Symphony presents Magic of Christmas. 7 p.m.

Kick off the Christmas season with the Capital Region’s favorite festival tradition, The Magic of Christmas, at the beautiful Palace Theatre. This concert is bustling with hundreds of talented young performers, glorious musical favorites, and spectacular surprises.

Saturday, Jan. 12: Albany Symphony presents “An Evening with Yo-Yo Ma.” 7 p.m. Yo-Yo Ma joins the orchestra for the greatest of all cello concertos, the Dvorak Concerto, from 1895.

Sunday, Jan. 27: Albany Symphony presents Sunday Symphony. 3 p.m. Learn from the master about what a composer does and how Beethoven composed. Price Chopper’s Sunday Symphonies are energetic, hour-long concerts featuring Maestro David Alan Miller in costume, portraying figures from music history and his own imagination.

Saturday, March 9: Albany Symphony presents Pictures At An Exhibition. 7:30 p.m. Preconcert talk is at 6:30 in the Palace Theatre. This celebration of the visual arts includes Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and a thrilling recent violin concerto by Michael Daugherty. The phenomenal

Ida Kavafian On March 9, the Albany Symphony presents Pictures At An Exhibition., featuring Ida Kavafian on violin, at the Palace Theatre in Albany. — photo by Catherine Levin American violinist, Ida Kavafian, for whom the work was written, joins the orchestra as soloist.

The concert opens with a work by a brilliant young Mexican composer, Gabriela Ortiz.

Proctors Key Hall at Proctors 436 State St., Schenectady (518) 881-4501 Sunday, March 17: Albany Pro Musica: If Music Be the Food of Love. 3 p.m. A newly commissioned piece setting verses from “The Song of Songs” highlights a program that explores various aspects of love. This magical performance will renew your belief in love. Not to be missed! Piano-accompanied and a cappella. With Starr Norman, Piano, and the Capital District Youth Chorale, Diane Warner, Conductor.

Schenectady County Community College 78 Washington Ave., Schenectady sunysccc.edu

Lally Mohawk Room Monday, Dec. 10: SCCC Guitar Ensembles. 7:30 p.m. Music students perform.

SCCC Taylor Auditorium Friday, Dec. 14: SCCC Wind Ensemble Concert. 7:30 p.m.

Music students perform.

Skidmore College Zankel Music Center

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall

815 N. Broadway, Saratoga Springs skidmore.edu (518) 580-5000 Saturday, Nov. 17: Brass Ensembles. 5:30 p.m. Coached

by Patrice Malatestinic Friday, Nov. 30: “Falling For Song.” 5 p.m. Recital by voice students of Anne Zwick Turner and Gene Marie Callahan.

Saturday, Dec. 1: Skidmore String Ensembles. 2 p.m. Led by Michael Emery.

Sunday, Dec. 2: Skidmore Wind Chamber Ensemble. 3 p.m.

Monday, Dec. 3: Skidmore Big Band. 8 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 6: Skidmore Guitar Ensemble. 8 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 7: Skidmore Community Chorus. 8 p.m.

Directed by Katie Gardiner.

Tuesday, Dec. 11: Skidmore College Orchestra 30th Anniversary Concert. 8 p.m. The Filene Concert Series presents a celebration of the Skidmore College Orchestra with music director Anthony G. Holland. The program includes Verdi’s “The Force of Destiny Overture,” Ives’ “The Unanswered Question,” Grieg’s “Norwegian Dances, Op. 35,” and Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6.”

Wednesday, Dec. 12: Student Compositions Concert. 8 p.m.

30 Second St., Troy troymusichall.org (518) 273-0038 Saturday, Feb. 9 - Sunday, Feb. 10: Albany Symphony presents Bronfman Plays Beethoven.

7:30 p.m. (3 p.m. Sunday).

One of the world’s greatest pianists, Yefim Bronfman, returns to the Albany Symphony to perform Beethoven’s monumental final concerto, “The Emperor.”

This concert also reintroduces the orchestra’s 2012-13 “Mentor-Composer,” Christopher Rouse, to Capital Region audiences with an exotic, sensual masterpiece from 1999, “Kabir Padavali” (Kabir Songbook).

Tuesday, Jan. 1: Berkshire Bach Society presents: Bach at New Year’s — Brandenburgs Plus. 4 p.m. A concerto for two horns, two oboes and solo violin by Antonio Vivaldi; the Bach Double Concerto for Violin and Oboe in Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s new reconstruction; and the Harpsichord Concerto No. 15 in D minor by Handel (stolen largely from Telemann) with a special harpsichord cadenza.

The musical party will be rounded out by Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti Nos. 2 and 3, the latter in Berkshire Bach’s own special version with lots of winds, an idea that originated with the old master himself. The guest

artist for the evening will be violinist Joseph Silverstein, Friday, Feb. 1: Albany Pro Musica: High School Choral Festival. 7:30 p.m. Listen to the amazing music being created by choral groups at area high schools. Top-quality voices dominate the evening when Albany Pro Musica, six high school choirs and the Empire State Youth Orchestra Repertory Orchestra come together onstage at one of the Capital Region’s most highly acclaimed acoustical venues.

Wednesday, March 27: Kirill Gerstein. 7:30 p.m. Troy Chromatic Concerts welcomes the pianist.

Union College Memorial Chapel 807 Union St., Schenectady (518) 388-6000 Monday, Nov. 12: Bernarda Fink. 8 p.m. Bernarda Fink, mezzo-soprano, performs as part of the Union College Chamber Concert Series.

Sunday, Nov. 18: Viva Italia.

3 p.m. Octavo Singers 80 and older voice choir will present Puccini’s Mezza DiGloria as well as Rossini’s Stabat Mater with orchestra under the talented direction of Curtis Funk.

Sunday, Dec. 2: Brentano String Quartet. 3 p.m. The Brentano String Quartet performs as part of the Union College Chamber Concert Series.

Friday, Dec. 14: Boston Camerata. 8 p.m. Boston Camerata performs as part of the Union College Chamber Concert Series.

Sunday, Dec. 16: Handel’s Messiah. 1:30 p.m. An annual tradition returns to Union College. The 100-plus voices of Octavo Singers will present Handel’s Messiah with orchestra under the talented direction of Curtis Funk.

Sunday, Jan. 6: Philip Setzer, David Finckel and Wu Han. 3 p.m. This triumvirate of chamber music superstars has been friends of the Series for over 30 years with good reason. Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38 Dvorak: Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 90, “Dumky” Dvorak: Piano Trio in F Minor, Op. 65.

Sunday, Jan. 27: Jeremy Denk, piano. 3 p.m. A consummate artist, Denk is that rare combination of thoughtful phrasing, incomparable technique and unbridled passion in his interpretation of a wide range of repertoire.

Friday, Feb. 8: Vladimir Feltsman, piano. 8 p.m. This Russian virtuoso’s famed career was launched upon his arrival in the United States in 1987 after being suppressed by the Soviet regime for almost ten years. He makes his debut on the series with Mussorgsky’s monumental keyboard masterpiece. J.S. Bach: 6 Little Preludes, BWV 933-938 C.P.E. Bach: Andante con tenerezza Haydn: Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Hob XVI: 46 Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition.

Sunday, Feb. 24: Anthony McGill and Gloria Chien. 3 p.m.

The principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra has established himself as one of the leading musicians of his generation. Despite McGill’s busy schedule at the Met, he performs in recital and with orchestras around the country.

Debussy: Premiere Rhapsodie; Scriabin: Selected Preludes (arranged for clarinet and piano); Poulenc: Clarinet Sonata; Schumann: Romances, Op. 94; Berg: Four Pieces, Op. 5; Weber: Grand Duo Concertant, Op. 48.

Sunday, March 17: Coast Chamber Orchestra. 3 p.m. This group comprising incredible musicians from the Marlboro Festival, leading string quartets, and major orchestras makes its fifth series appearance. Performing without a conductor, the ensemble approaches orchestral music with a chamber music mentality, creating an amazing mix of intimacy and power. Mozart: Divertimento in F Major, K. 138 Britten: Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge Purcell: Fantasia (selections) Bartok: Divertimento.

Sunday, March 24: Stefan Jackiw and Anna Polonsky.

3 p.m. Making his series debut, 24-year-old Jackiw has already performed as soloist with the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and Philadelphia as well as with major orchestras throughout the world. Stravinsky: Suite Italienne Brahms: Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78 David Fulmer: l’Arc de Suspension Strauss: Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 18.

University at Albany UAlbany Performing Arts Center 1400 Washington Ave., Albany albany.edu/pac (518) 422-3997 Sunday, Nov. 11: The Choral Hour. 4 p.m. The University-

Community Chorale and University Chamber Singers perform.

Friday, Nov. 16: Bach to Broadway. 7:30 p.m. An audience favorite, the UAlbany voice students perform in this evening of classical and Broadway music.

Monday, Nov. 19: University Jazz Ensemble. 7 p.m. The midsized ensemble presents concerts of popular jazz standards.

Monday, Dec. 3 - Tuesday, Dec. 4: Student Recitals. A host of performers showcase their vocal and musical talents as part of their developmental studies.

Sunday, Dec. 9: Holiday Concert.

4 p.m. The University Music Department ensembles (Chorale, Chamber Singers, Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra) are joined by student groups (Serendipity and Earth) Tones for a concert celebrating the season.

Monday, Dec. 10: Twenty Drummers Drummin’. 7 p.m. The UAlbany Percussion Ensemble and the RPI Percussion Ensemble perform.

Wednesday, Feb. 6: Youth Movements Festival — Capital Trio. 7:30 p.m. The fifth annual festival focuses on music from Eastern Europe. Capital Trio opens the three-day event with music of the Czech composers Smetana and Dvorak as well as Beethoven.

Saturday, Feb. 9: Youth Movements Festival — Master Class with Duncan Cumming. 1 p.m. The fifth annual festival focuses on music from Eastern Europe. On the second day of the three-day festival, Professor Duncan Cumming will give a Master Class for the community for the Marian Brown Day of Scholarship.

Sunday, Feb. 10: Youth Movements Festival — Bartok Finale. 1 p.m. The fifth annual festival focuses on music from Eastern Europe. The finale of the three-day festival features music by the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok who wrote hundreds of piano pieces for children and professionals alike.

Monday, March 4: UniversityCommunity Concert Band. 7 p.m. This large ensemble presents several selections covering a wide variety of band literature.

Thursday, March 7: Aruan Ortiz: Orchestral Music & Two-Piano Duets. 7 p.m. This two-part program begins with new orchestral works and conducted

improvisation by this visiting pianist/composer performing with the University-Community Orchestra followed by improvised music for two pianos where he is joined by Bob Gluck.

Sunday, March 10: UniversityCommunity Symphony Orchestra.

3 p.m. A group of students, faculty and community musicians present symphonic favorites under the direction of conductor Christopher Neubert.

Monday, March 11: Festival of Contemporary Music. 7 p.m. The University Percussion Ensemble and the Empire State Youth & Repertory Percussion Ensembles perform.

Friday, April 5: One Act Opera.

7:30 p.m. To culminate a twoweek residency, UAlbany voice students perform a one act opera staged by Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre.

Pop, Rock, Folk, Country and Jazz Bethel Woods Center for the Arts 200 Hurd Road, Bethel bethelwoodscenter.org (866) 781-2922 Saturday, Dec. 15: Judy Collins.

7:30 p.m.

The Chapel + Cultural Center at RPI 2125 Burdett Ave., Troy chapelandculturalcenter.org (518) 274-7793 Wednesday, Nov. 14: Capital Pride Singers. 7:30 p.m. The Capital Region’s gay-lesbianbisexual-transgendered chorus presents “’Tis the Season,” a concert of pop, Broadway and classical music.

Charles R. Wood Theater 207 Glen St., Glens Falls atfestival.org (518) 874-0800 Friday, Nov. 23 - Saturday, Nov. 24: Tony DeSare Home for the Holidays. DeSare brings his hometown fans a fresh show every year and also plays some favorites for his family and friends.

Monday, Dec. 10: Judy Collins Holiday and Hits. 7:30 p.m. A modern day Renaissance woman who continues to create music of hope and healing that lights up the world, the legendary folk singer Judy Collins will perform her holiday show, mixing seasonal favorites with her greatest hits.

Saturday, Dec. 15: Blue Sunday — A Tribute to the Doors.

Starring Mike D from NBC Sports Network, PBS and World Fishing Network’s Welcome to Lunkerville.

Judy Collins performs at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Dec. 6. Read our interview with Collins online at timesunion.com/explore. — photo courtesy judy collins

calendar winter 2012-13 Monday, Dec. 31: Laura Roth Music Presents: Wild Women Revival. Laura Roth and Nancy Timpanaro-Hogan reunite, bringing with them new music, never before seen comedy, as well as glimpses of laughter and pathos from their years of live performances, both separately and as an act.

The Colonial Theatre 111 South St., Pittsfield, Mass. thecolonialtheatre.org (413) 997-4444 Friday, Nov. 16: Arlo Guthrie.

8 p.m. Arlo Guthrie has always honored his father in song as well as in life.

Saturday, Dec. 1: Mary Verdi: Christmas At the Colonial. 2 p.m. This lively show begins the holiday season and will have you and your family singing along to all of the wonderful Christmas songs.

The Egg Empire State Plaza, Albany theegg.org (518) 473-1845 Saturday, Nov. 17: Arlo Guthrie.

7:30 p.m. Arlo Guthrie celebrates the Woody Guthrie Centennial with Here Comes the Kid — a special tribute to his legendary dad — an evening of music and stories confirming that Woody’s folk tradition is alive and well. Of course, there will also be plenty of the classic songs and stories that have made Arlo Guthrie America’s favorite folksinger.

Sunday, Nov. 18: Victor Wooten Band & Jimmy Herring Band. 7 p.m. A double bill featuring the world’s most amazing electric bassist plus the lead guitarist for Widespread Panic.

Wednesday, Dec. 5: Dark Star Orchestra. 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 7: Ruthie Foster. 8 p.m. One of the strongest new voices in contemporary folk, blues, soul and gospel music.

Saturday, Dec. 15: Mountain Snow & Mistletoe. 8 p.m. An annual tradition! A down-home concert of holiday songs and stories with Christopher Shaw and Bridget Ball that features “The Mountain Snow Orchestra” — fiddler John Kirk, guitarist Kevin McKrell, and percussionist Brian Melick.

Friday, Jan. 18: Jesse Cook. 8 p.m. Canadian guitarist Cook blends exotic Spanish rumba flamenco with elements of jazz and flawless technique to create a contemporary sound that has earned a Juno Award in the Best

8 explore

Instrumental Album, Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s Player’s Choice Award and his own PBS television special.

Sunday, Jan. 20: Joe Lovano Us Five. 7:30 p.m. Grammy Awardwinning saxophone giant Joe Lovano has distinguished himself as a force in the arena of creative music and with his band featuring James Wiedman on piano, Esperanza Spalding on bass and Otis Brown III and Francisco Mela on drums.

Friday, Jan. 25: Loudon Wainwright III. 8 p.m.

Saturday, March 9: Altan. 7:30 p.m. One of the day’s most vibrant traditional Irish bands.

Sunday, March 10: SFJAZZ Collective. 7:30 p.m. The allstar ensemble SFJAZZ Collective will perform the music of Chick Corea and original compositions performed by alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon, tenor saxophonist David Sachez, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, trumpeter Avishai Cohen, trombonist Robin Eubanks, pianist Edward Simon, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Jeff Ballard.

Sunday, March 24: Kurt Elling.

7:30 p.m. Grammy-winning jazz vocalist.

Glens Falls Civic Center 1 Civic Center Plaza, Glens Falls glensfallscc.com (518) 798-0366 Thursday, Nov. 15: Lamb of God. 8 p.m. Also featuring In Flames, Hatebreed and Sylosis.

Maureen Stapleton Theater Hudson Valley Community College, Troy hvcc.edu Thursday, Nov. 15: Jim Gaudet and the Railroad Boys. 12 p.m.

Reminiscent of Hank Williams, Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe, Jim Gaudet and the Railroad Boys give audiences bluegrass with the sound of rockabilly mixed in.

Old Songs oldsongs.org

Community Arts Center 37 S. Main St., Voorheesville Friday, Nov. 16 - Saturday, Nov. 17: Work O’ the Weavers.

Back in the 1940s and 1950s, the seminal American folk quartet the Weavers introduced a stream of authenticity into the current of American popular music that endures to this day.

With faithful adherence to the original Weavers arrangements,

David Bernz, James Durst, Mark Murphy and Martha Sandefer recall the spirit of the Weavers, providing an echo of their timeless music and some insight into their still timely story.

St. John’s Lutheran Church 142 Maple Ave., Altamont (518) 765-2815 Saturday, Dec. 8: Nowell Sing We Clear. 3 p.m. A Mid-Winter Pageant of Carols with John Roberts, Tony Barrand, Fred Breunig and Andy Davis. A festive holiday season concert featuring fanciful carols, poignant ballads and rousing choruses from both sides of the Atlantic served up with an energetic dance band accompaniment and 4-part harmony.

Palace Theatre 19 Clinton Ave., Albany palacealbany.com (518) 465-3334 Friday, Dec. 14: Martina McBride. 7:30 p.m. McBride will celebrate the Joy of Christmas when her special holiday tour comes to the Palace Theatre.

Enjoy an evening of timeless holiday music and much more.

Thursday, Apr. 4: Johnny Mathis. 8 p.m. With his unmistakable voice, Johnny Mathis is responsible for some of the most romantic songs ever recorded.

TranS-sIBerian ORchestra brings its hard-rock holiday show back to the Capital Region at the Times Union Center, Dec. 13. — photo by Paul Buckowski/Times Union Archive

Proctors 432 State St., Schenectady proctors.org (518) 346-6204 Friday, Nov. 16: The Rockabilly Riot. 7:30 p.m. Relive the music, costumes and memories of noteable acts like Elvis, Johnny Cash, Wanda Jackson and Jerry Lee Lewis and others with Joey Pucci and the American Longboards.

Monday, Dec. 10: The Christmas Music of Mannheim Steamroller.

Friday, Feb. 1: The Pipes and Drums of the Blackwatch 3rd Battalion. 8 p.m.

Friday, March 15: The Irish Tenors. 8 p.m. Let’s Celebrate Ireland Tour.

Saturday, March 23: Sixties Spectacular. 7 p.m. Stars Peter Noone and Herman’s Hermits singing from their 14 hit records. The night also features Mary Wilson of the Supremes, Jay and the Americans, and the Happenings with their international hit “See You in September.”

Sunday, March 24: Slask. 4 p.m. Polish Song and Dance Ensemble.

Friday, March 29: Kodo Drummers. 8 p.m. Exploring

the limitless possibilities of the traditional Japanese drum, the taiko, Kodo is forging new directions for a vibrant living art form. In Japanese the word Kodo conveys two meanings. First, heartbeat: the primal, tender sound as heard in the womb. Second, children of the drum: reflecting Kodo’s intent to play their drums simply, with the heart of a child.

Friday, April 5: Arturo Sandoval.

8 p.m. A protégé of the legendary jazz master Dizzy Gillespie, Sandoval was born in Artemisa, a small town on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba in 1949. He has since evolved into one of the world’s most acknowledged guardians of jazz trumpet and flugelhorn, as well as a renowned classical artist, pianist and composer.

Schenctady County Community College 78 Washington Ave., Schenectady sunysccc.edu

Taylor Auditorium 78 Washington Ave., Schenectady Wednesday, Dec. 5: SCCC Jazz Ensemble, SCCC Percussion

Ensemble and SCCC Jazz Combo Concert. 7:30 p.m. Schenectady County Community College Performing Arts: Music students perform.

Skidmore College Zankel Music Center 815 N. Broadway, Saratoga Springs skidmore.edu (518) 580-5000 Friday, Nov. 16 - Saturday, Nov. 17: Beatlemore Skidmania 2012: Beatles 50. This year’s Beatlemore Skidmania Celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ first recording.

Beginning with the release of “Love Me Do” in October 1962.

Saturday, Dec. 1: Skidmore Small Jazz Ensembles. 8 p.m.

Coached by John Nazarenko.

Times Union Center 51 S. Pearl St., Albany timesunioncenter-albany.com (518) 487-2000 Tuesday, Dec. 4: Carrie Underwood. 7:30 p.m. Country superstar and American Idol alumni Thursday, Dec. 13: TransSiberian Orchestra. 7:30 p.m.

The orchestra returns to meld hard rock with holiday melodies.

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall 30 Second St., Troy troymusichall.org (518) 273-0038 Friday, Nov. 16: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. 7 p.m. Renowned for their irresistible live show and musically perceptive approach, this seven-man group plays a fusion of classic American sounds from jazz, swing, Dixieland and bigband music, building their own songbook of original dance tunes.

Sunday, Nov. 18: Tierney Sutton. 7 p.m. The quartet is joined by the great jazz vocalist Tierney Sutton.

Thursday, Dec. 6: Judy Collins.

7 p.m. A benefit for the Capital Region Coalition to End Homelessness.

Saturday, Dec. 15: Cherish the Ladies. 7:30 p.m. In this Celtic Christmas program, the Ladies put their signature mark on classic Christmas carols.

Dance The Egg theegg.org Empire State Plaza, Albany Friday, Nov. 16: Bellydance Superstars. 7 p.m. The Bellydance Superstars take the ancient artform into the mainstream of international entertainment.

Sunday, Dec. 16: The Nutcracker, 2:30 and 6:30 p.m. Presented by the Albany Berkshire Ballet.

Saturday, Jan. 12: Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company. 8 p.m.

With contemporary movement that celebrates rhythm, energy and musicality, expect a mix of audience favorites and world premieres at their annual performance at The Egg. Friday, Feb. 8: Brian Brooks Moving Company — “Big City.”

8 p.m. The Brian Brooks Moving Company brings their newest dance exploring the physical and emotional destruction that takes over nations, communities and individuals, and the rebuilding that follows Sunday, Feb. 10: Peter and The Wolf. 3 p.m. New York Theatre Ballet adds jazz, tap, and modern dance moves in their brandnew version of Peter & The Wolf — performed to live music! Also on the program is the new work A Bark in the Park.

Friday, March 1: Philadanco — “Wake Up!.” 8 p.m. Founded in

1970, the troupe has a legacy of breaking barriers and building bridges across cultural divides through their contemporary dance performances created by some of the world’s finest choreographers. The tradition will continue as the company performs “Wake Up!” by Rennie Harris and other works.

EMPAC (The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) 110 8th St., Troy empac.rpi.edu (518) 276-3921 Friday, Nov. 16 - Saturday Nov. 17: Four Walls. With Four Walls, Ralph Lemon premieres a live multimedia dance installation that provides four points of view on one dance, giving a new shape to a “dance with no form.” The basis of the amorphous collaborative work is a play on time, energy, and the disappearing body.

Saturday, Dec. 8: Dimitris Papaioannou: Primal Matter. 8 p.m. Avant-garde choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou embarks on an artistic challenge: an experiment investigating personal and national identity through an optical illusion created by two isolated bodies on stage, at a time when the issue of paramount concern is, ultimately, what is indispensable — what constitutes the essence.

Palace Theatre 19 Clinton Ave., Albany palacealbany.com (518) 465-3334 Tuesday, Nov. 20: So You Think You Can Dance Tour 2012. 7:30 p.m. The season nine tour lineup includes the top-10 finalists.

Tuesday, Dec. 4: Moscow Ballet: The Great Russian Nutcracker.

7:30 p.m. The 20th-anniversary production overflows with a spectacular new “Dove of Peace” performed by two dancers, Christmas tree that grows to seven stories tall, 40 top Russian dancers, falling snow, charming silk puppets, 200 lavish costumes, and nine handpainted backdrops all set to Tchaikovsky’s complete score.

Proctors 432 State St., Schenectady proctors.org (518) 346-6204 Friday, Dec. 7 - Sunday, Dec. 9: Northeast Ballet: The Nutcracker.

Saratoga Performing Arts Center 108 Ave of the Pines, Saratoga Springs spac.org (518) 584-9330 Monday, Nov. 19: The Nutcracker Tea. 11 a.m. A tea party to top them all: The Nutcracker Tea, presented by SPAC’s Action Council is a holiday tradition complete with Northeast Ballet’s rendition of The Nutcracker, Christmas cookies, and hot cocoa.

Saratoga Springs Downtown Friday, Feb. 15 - Sunday, Feb. 17: The Flurry. Beginner-, intermediate- and experienced-level workshops and dances; over 300 performers; five venues.

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall 30 Second St., Troy troymusichall.org (518) 273-0038 Friday, Dec. 7: Temptation of the Muses: A special program featuring Nai Ni Chen Dance and the Ahn Trio. 8 p.m. The dances of Nai-Ni Chen fuse the dynamic freedom of American modern dance with the grace and splendor of Asian art.

University at Albany UAlbany Performing Arts Center 1400 Washington Ave., Albany albany.edu/pac (518) 422-3997 Thursday, Feb. 21: Gesel Mason Performance Projects in Women, Sex and Desire. 7:30 p.m. With dance, true-life stories and video imagery at its core, this multi-media investigation on how women navigate sex, desire, choice & perception challenges stereotypes, assumptions and conventional wisdom.

Stage Albany Civic Theater 235 Second Ave., Albany albanycivictheater.org Sunday, Nov. 11 - Sunday, Nov. 18: The Shape of Things. A modern-day retelling of the fall of man: after a chance meeting in a museum, Evelyn, a sexy, aggressive artist, and Adam, a shy, insecure student, become embroiled in an intense affair.

Before long, it veers into the

kind of dangerous, seductive territory that LaBute does best.

Only in the final and shocking exhibition, does Evelyn reveal her true intentions.

Friday, Feb. 8 - Sunday, Feb. 24: The Laramie Project. In October 1998, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die, tied to a fence in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wy. — a victim of this assault because he was gay. Moises Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project made six trips to Laramie over the course of a year and a half in the aftermath of the murder and during the trial of the two young men accused of killing Shepard.

the story of George Bailey, the good guy who comes to see himself as others do while confronting terrible hardship at the hand of Mr. Potter.

Friday, March 1 - Sunday, March 31: The Single Girls Guide.

In the stylish world of 1964 Manhattan, beloved newspaper columnist Emma Woodhouse is still single and about to turn 30. As her father urges her to marry the first available man — and her editor urges her to toe the line, she begins to transform her household advice column into a platform for change, encouraging readers to drop their casseroles, question the nature of marriage and demand sexual freedom.

Capital Repertory Theater

207 Glen St., Glens Falls atfestival.org (518) 874-0800 Sunday, Nov. 11: Glens Falls Community Theater presents Guys and Dolls. Set in New York City in the 1950’s, it is filled with colorful characters — gamblers, tipsters, con men, dancers, street walkers and the like,

111 N. Pearl St., Albany capitalrep.org (518) 445-7469 Friday, Nov. 23 - Saturday, Dec. 22: This Wonderful Life. 8 p.m.

All the pleasure of Frank Capra’s classic movie — in only 70 minutes. Based on the film, here’s

Charles R. Wood Theater

all juxtaposed to the save-thesoul mission group led by cool and prim Sgt. Sarah Brown and Arvide Abernathy.

Cohoes Music Hall 58 Remsen St, Cohoes cohoesmusichall.com (518) 237-5858 Thursday, Nov. 1 - Sunday, Nov. 11: Hello Dolly. The story of Dolly Gallagher Levi, one of musical theater’s favorite characters, and her efforts to marry the wealthy Horace Vandergelder.

Thursday, Dec. 6 - Sunday, Dec. 16: C-R Productions’ Holiday Special. The 90-minute original program combines singing, dancing and a slew of holiday favorites.

Thursday, Jan. 10 - Sunday, Jan. 20: C-R Kids’ Rent. The Tony Award-winning comingof-age story about a group of friends struggling with love, drugs and AIDS. Friday, Feb. 8 - Sunday, Feb. 10: C-R Kids’ Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, Jr. In this musical adaptation of the popular fairy tale, the evil fairy, Trollarina,

The Albany Berkshire Ballet presents The Nutcracker on Dec. 16 at The Egg in Albany.

— photo by Paul Buckowski/Times Union Archive

calendar winter 2012-13 exacts her revenge on the royal family by sending the beautiful Princess Melisande into an everlasting sleep.

Thursday, March 7 - Sunday, March 17: 5 Guys Named Moe.” About Nomax, who pines for love and drowns his misery in alcohol.

College of Saint Rose Campus Theatre 996A Madison Ave., Albany Thursday, Nov. 15 - Saturday, Nov. 18: Flora the Red Menace.

In their first Broadway collaboration, John Kander and Fred Ebb look back on 1930s New York City. Flora Meseros (a role originated by a 19-year-old Liza Minelli) is a promising art student who finds her first job and first love in Depression-era Greenwich Village.

Curtain Call Theatre

210 Old Loudon Road, Latham curtaincalltheatre.com (518) 877-7529 Sunday, Nov. 11 - Saturday, Nov. 17: Opus. Michael Hollinger’s drama about the infighting and struggles of a string quartet preparing for a performance at the White House.

Friday, Nov. 30 - Sunday, Dec. 23: “Ding Dong.” A wild holiday farce by Marc Camoletti.

Friday, Jan. 11 - Saturday, Feb. 9: Dracula. Bloodthirsty, lustful and evil incarnate, but above all — a gentleman. The Count journeys from his gloomy

Transylvanian castle to the bustling streets of London, leaving death and destruction in his seductive wake. This is a darkly passionate and hauntingly lush adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel.

Friday, Feb. 22 - Saturday, March 23: These Shining Lives.

The lives of women working in a 1920s radium watch dial factory are explored in this true story of survival within a system more concerned with profit than safety.

Friday, April 5 - Saturday, May 11: Our Son’s Wedding. Love and marriage Italian-style: an Italian-American plumber and his wife arrive at their son’s wedding to another man.

Complications erupt in a humorous story of a family that needs to let go of the past and forge a new future together.

The Ghent Playhouse 6 Town Hall Place, Ghent Saturday, Nov. 24 - Sunday, Dec. 9: Robin Hood: Fifty Shades of Green. Robin Hood and his men have returned to rob the rich and give back to the poor.

They rescue Maid Marion and Maude Lynn from the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham and his evil sidekicks with the help of a mysterious hermit.

the Ball Game and Other Stories to be Thankful For. 5 p.m. Story Sunday, a storytelling dinner series for adults, now in its 14th season. Listen as Kate Dudding and Betty McCanty share three baseball stories as well as other stories to get you in the mood for Thanksgiving.

Home Made Theater 19 Roosevelt Dr., Saratoga Springs Friday, Dec. 7 - Sunday, Dec. 16: The Wizard of Oz.

MASS MoCA Theatre B-10 1040 MASS MoCA WAY, North Adams, Mass. massmoca.org (413) 662-2111 Saturday, Dec. 1: Tim Crouch: My Arm. 8 p.m. In conjunction with Sundance Institute’s vaunted Theatre Lab program, Lab Fellow Tim Crouch presents a story of an empty gesture, a confession of a man who has lived for 30 years by the courage of his lack of conviction. Live performance and the animation of everyday objects combine in this simple, honest, intimate, and painfully funny work of solo theatre about modern art and how the things we do when we’re ten stick with us for life.

Glen Sanders Mansion 1 Glen Ave., Schenectady Sunday, Nov. 18: Take Me Out to

Charlie Ross Stars in an intense one-man Star Wars re-enactment. See it Jan. 25-27 at Proctors in Schenectady. photo COURTESY CHARLES ROSS

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Proctors 432 State St., Schenectady proctors.org (518) 346-6204 Sunday, Nov. 11 - Sunday, Nov. 25: Wicked. Long before that girl from Kansas arrives in Munchkinland, two girls meet in the land of Oz. One — born with emerald green skin — is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular.

Friday, Nov. 30: The Cake Boss: Buddy Valastro. 8 p.m.

Homemade for the Holidays Tour.

Monday, Dec. 3 - Tuesday, Dec. 4: A Christmas Carol.

Friday, Dec. 14 - Sunday, Dec. 23: Classic Theatre Guild Inc. A Christmas Story. Humorist Jean Shepherd’s memoir of growing up in the Midwest in the 1940s follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun under the tree for Christmas.

Friday, Dec. 14 - Sunday, Dec. 16: A Chorus Line. The musical for everyone who’s ever had a dream and put it all on the line.

Winner of nine Tony Awards, including “Best Musical” and the Pulitzer Prize for drama, this singular sensation is the longest-running American Broadway musical ever.

Friday, Dec. 28 - Sunday, Dec. 30: Cirque Dreams: Holidaze.

Renowned Broadway director Neil Goldberg has assembled an international cast of over 30 multi-talented artists performing astonishing feats of disbelief celebrating the holiday season Tuesday, Jan. 15 - Sunday, Jan. 20: Potted Potter. Written and performed by two-time Olivier Award-nominated actors Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, the show is a must-see for Potter addicts and a great introduction to the series for anyone who’s ever wondered what all the fuss is about.

Tuesday, Jan. 22 - Sunday, Jan. 27: Million Dollar Quartet. The Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, inspired by the electrifying true story of the famed recording session that brought together rock ‘n’ roll icons Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins for the first and only time.

Friday, Jan. 25 - Sunday, Jan. 27: One-Man Star Wars Trilogy.

Three movies, a classic trilogy and just one talented and overworked Star Wars fanatic. Skilled Canadian actor Charlie Ross

does it all — all the ships, planets, characters and music in one not-to-be-missed performance.

Tuesday, Feb. 5 - Thursday, Feb. 7: American Idiot. Direct from Broadway, the smash-hit musical American Idiot tells the story of three lifelong friends, forced to choose between their dreams and the safety of suburbia. Their quest for true meaning in a post 9/11 world leads them on the most exhilarating theatrical journey of the season.

Thursday, Feb. 7 - Friday, Feb. 15: La Traviata. Hubbard Hall presents Verdi’s tragic play chronicling the ill-fated romance of Violetta Valéry and Alfredo Germont.

Tuesday, Feb. 12 - Sunday, Feb. 17: Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The show tells the uplifting story of a trio of friends on a road trip of a lifetime, who hop aboard a battered old bus searching for love and friendship in the middle of the Australian outback and end up finding more than they could ever have dreamed.

Friday, Feb. 15 - Sunday, Feb. 25: Brighton Beach Memoirs.

Presented by Classic Theater Guild, Inc. Thursday, Feb 21: The Peking Acrobats. The ensemble performs daring maneuvers atop a precarious pagoda of chairs; they are experts at treacherous wire-walking, trick-cycling, precision tumbling, somersaulting and gymnastics.

Wednesday, Feb. 27 - Thursday, Feb. 28: Traces. Fusing the traditions of circus with the energy of street performance, the artists of Traces employ every trick in the book — from music, dance and illustration to skateboarding, basketball and high-risk acrobatics — to make a lasting impression.

Friday, March 8 - Saturday, March 9: Fela!. The story of legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, whose soulful Afrobeat rhythms ignited a generation.

Thursday, March 14 - Sunday, March 17: Finnegan’s Farewell.

As Father Seamus presides over the funeral service of postal worker Patrick James Finnegan, you’ll be treated to eulogies, singalongs and a missing corpse! Eat, drink and dance to the music of the Dublineers and jig out with the champion Riverkids.

Friday, March 27: Hooray for Hollywood. 8 p.m. Take a nostalgic journey through the

most popular movie musicals of the last 50 years. Featuring a cast of 14 wonderful singers and dancers, a 6 piece band live on stage, and over 300 costume changes.

RPI Playhouse 15th St., Troy (518) 276-6505 Sunday, Nov. 11 - Saturday, Nov. 17: Much Ado About Nothing. Shakespearean farce.

Schenectady County Community College Taylor Auditorium 78 Washington Ave., Schenectady Wednesday, Nov. 14 - Saturday, Nov. 17: The SCCC Players perform The Metal Children by Adam Rapp. 8 p.m. In small-town America, a young-adult novel about teen pregnancy is banned by the local school board. When the novel’s directionless New York City author arrives in town to defend the book, he finds that it has inspired a group of local teens to rebel in strange and unexpected ways.

Skidmore College 815 N. Broadway, Saratoga Springs skidmore.edu Friday, Nov. 16 - Sunday, Dec. 2: William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Mortals, fairies and enchanted lovers combine to fill this Shakespearean favorite with humor, magic and erotic love. Four lovelorn young people encounter quarrelsome fairy royalty in magical woods.

SLOC Musical Theatre Schenectady Light Opera Company 427 Franklin St., Schenectady sloctheater.org 1-877-350-7378 Friday, Dec. 7 - Sunday, Dec. 16: Little Shop of Horrors. Based on the low-budget 1960 blackcomedy film, this rock musical tells the tale of a hapless Seymour and his bloodthirsty plant, “Audrey II” — an illtempered, foul-mouthed, R&Bsinging carnivore who offers him fame and fortune in exchange for feeding its growing appetite.

Friday, Feb. 8 - Sunday, Feb. 17: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

A musical that tells the tawdry tale of two con men living on the French Riviera — a suave and sophisticated ladies’ man who makes his living by

Comedy

talking rich ladies out of their money, and a small-town crook who swindles sympathetic women with sob stories about his grandmother’s failing health.

Friday, March 15 - Sunday, March 24: Sound of Music.

The Egg

Schenectady Civic Playhouse

Hart Theatre

12 S. Church St., Schenectady civicplayers.org (518) 382-2081 Friday, Nov. 30 - Sunday, Dec. 9: Mrs. Mannerly. Inspired by hilarious memories of a childhood etiquette class, playwright Jeffrey Hatcher conjures up the world of a ten-year-old studying manners.

Friday, Jan. 25 - Sunday, Feb. 3: Three Tall Women. A young woman is sent to sort out the finances of an elderly client. But it’s more than money that gets put through the wringer as the older woman’s life is laid out in all of its charming, intriguing, and powerful glory. Winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize, this outstanding play is one of Mr. Albee’s most compelling works.

Friday, March 15 - Sunday, March 24: Woman In Mind.

After stepping on the tooth end of a garden rake, Susan experiences hilarious hallucinations in which her boring and oppressive everyday life is replaced by a fantasy. Now she is the ideal wife with the ideal family.

University at Albany UAlbany Performing Arts Center 1400 Washington Ave., Albany albany.edu/pac (518) 422-3997 Thursday, Jan. 31: Core Ensemble in “Of Ebony Embers: Vignettes of the Harlem Renaissance.” 7:30 p.m. On the eve of Black History Month, this chamber music theater work for actor and trio (cello, piano & percussion) celebrates the lives of three great African-American poets — Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Claude McKay — as seen through the eyes of the great muralist and painter Aaron Douglas to a musical score that includes works by Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, Billy Strayhorn, Thelonius Monk and Charles Mingus as well as concert music

by Jeffrey Mumford and George Walker.

Empire State Plaza, Albany theegg.org 473-1845 Sunday, March 17: Comedy Pet Theatre. 3 p.m. Comedy Pet Theatre is a blend of the unique comedy and juggling skills of Gregory Popovich, and the extraordinary talents of his pets performing a variety of stunts and skits — an extravaganza of European-style clowning, amazing juggling and balancing acts, and very talented dogs, cats, mice and more.

Proctors 432 State St., Schenectady proctors.org (518) 346-6204 Saturday, Dec. 1: Pumps and Punchlines. 8 p.m. All-female stand-up comedy Monday, Dec. 31: The First Night of Funny. 8 p.m. The eventshowcases four professional comedians with four unique and hilarious perspectives on the world. With talent from Comedy Central, NBC’s Last Comic Standing & The Tonight Show, this show provides nonstop laughter.

Saturday, March 16: Rich Little starring as Jimmy Stewart. 8 p.m. Master impressionist Rich Little is back with a show chock full of classic celebrity impressions in a touching and sidesplitting tribute to legendary movie star Jimmy Stewart.

Watervliet Elks Lodge 501 Fourth Ave., Watervliet Saturday, Nov. 17: The Brew Ha-Ha Comedy Showcase. 8 p.m.

Hosted by Greg Aidala and featuring Andy Pitz.

Family, Fairs & Festivals Albany Institute of History & Art 125 Washington Ave., Albany albanyinstitute.org (518) 463-4478 Friday, Nov. 23 - Sunday, Nov. 25: Holiday Gift Fair.

More than 50 regional artists and craftspeople will be at the

museum selling distinctive jewelry, pottery, glass, scarves, candles, cards, and gifts.

City of Saratoga Springs Downtown Thursday, Nov. 29: Victorian Streetwalk. 4:30 p.m. Broadway is blanketed in Victorian holiday magic each year with musicians, singers, magicians, and other performances to delight young and old alike. Free hot beverages and treats will be served at numerous locations around downtown, carolers will stroll the sidewalks and there will be over 50 venues with entertainment.

Monday, Dec. 31: First Night 2013. 5:30 p.m. Broadway and the surrounding streets of Saratoga Springs will be filled with music, art, comedy and family-friendly entertainment.

Presented by Saratoga Arts.

City of Schenectady Downtown Saturday, Nov. 17: The 45th Gazette Holiday Parade. 5 p.m.

Kick off the holidays with the Schenectady tradition, themed “Magic and Myths.” Over 100 entries including marching bands, floats, marchers and more will for march along for State Street for thousands of spectators.

City of Troy Downtown Sunday, Dec. 2: Troy Victorian Stroll. 11 a.m. This popular annual holiday festival attracts

Invisible cities at Mass MoCA is an exhibit of international artists and their poetic take on an urban environment. Opening April 15.

— photo COURTESY MAss moca over 20,000 visitors from across the Northeast. Enjoy a day of shopping, dining, family activities, music, performances and more amidst the charm of downtown Troy.

The Desmond Hotel 660 Albany-Shaker Road, Albany (518) 869-8100 desmondhotelsalbany.com Saturday, Nov. 17 - Sunday, Nov. 18: Pride of New York Harvest Festival. The area’s longest-running New York wine and food festival. Come sample and purchase from nearly 100 vendors from throughout New York State.

The Egg Empire State Plaza, Albany Sunday, Dec. 9: The Zucchini Brothers. 3 p.m. The Zucchini Brothers perform their original holiday songs.

Empire State Plaza Eagle Street and Madison Avenue, Albany ogs.ny.gov (518) 474-5987 Sunday, Dec. 2: SEFCU Holiday Tree Lighting. 1 p.m. In addition to the state’s annual tree lighting, there will be live music by the Troy Children’s Chorus, holiday card making workshops, a holiday marketplace, visits with Santa and a fireworks display.

National Museum of Dance 99 S. Broadway, Saratoga Springs dancemuseum.org (518) 584-2225 Sunday, Jan. 27 - Sunday, Jan. 27: Winter Antique Show.

10 a.m. Over 40 antique vendors will exhibit a variety of wares, filling the museum with treasures.

Palace Theatre 19 Clinton Ave., Albany palacealbany.com (518) 465-3334 Friday, Feb. 1 - Sunday, Feb. 3: Sesame Street Live: Elmo’s Super Heroes. Teaching lessons of healthy habits through song and dance, Elmo, Abby Cadabby and your favorite Sesame Street friends will explore exercise, nutrition, sleep/energy and hygiene — all in a quest to put the “super” back in Super Grover.

Proctors 432 State St, Schenectady proctors.org (518) 346-6204 Saturday, Feb. 9: Capital Region Wine Festival. 1 p.m. Raise your glass at the Capital Region Wine Festival, our annual tribute to the noblest of fruits, the grape!

You must be 21 years old or older to attend.

Pruyn House 207 Old Niskayuna Road, Latham colonie.org/pruyn (518) 783-1435 Saturday, Dec. 1: Holiday Greens Show, Sale and Open House. 10 a.m. The event is sponsored by the Blue Creek Garden Club. See the spectacular greens that adorn the historic House. Stop by the boutique to purchase decorations crafted

by Garden Club members.

Saratoga Performing Arts Center 108 Ave of the Pines, Saratoga Springs spac.org (518) 584-9330 Monday, Nov. 19: The Nutcracker Tea. 11 a.m. A tea party to top them all: The Nutcracker Tea, presented by SPAC’s Action Council is a holiday tradition complete with Northeast Ballet’s rendition of The Nutcracker, Christmas cookies, and hot cocoa.

Saratoga Springs City Center 522 Broadway, Saratoga Springs Thursday, Nov. 29 - Sunday, Dec. 2: Festival of Trees. 6 p.m.

Trees, wreaths, centerpieces and other holiday items available for viewing and for sale.

timesunion.com/explore 11

calendar winter 2012-13 Saratoga Springs Public Library 49 Henry St., Saratoga Springs sspl.org Sunday, Dec. 2: For The Holidays: Family Concert. 2 p.m. Enjoy a Holiday Concert

by The Flying Fingers Sign Language Troupe. Sponsored by the Association for the Hearing Impaired, the group is made up of children ages 6-16. For ages 5 and up.

Thursday, Dec. 27: A Christmas Carol presented by the Puppet People.

Times Union Center 51 S. Pearl St., Albany timesunioncenter-albany.com (518) 487-2000 Wednesday, Dec. 19 - Sunday, Dec. 23: Disney on Ice: Rockin’ Ever After. Your favorite Disney characters and stories brought to life with the artistry of ice skating to create an unforgettable family experience.

Washington Park Madison Ave., Albany (518) 428-0056 Saturday, Nov. 23 - Saturday, Jan. 5: 16th Annual Capital Holiday Lights. Washington Park is transformed into a wonderland of lights for the annual drive-thru tour benefiting the Albany Police Athletic League.

At the end of the journey, visit the Lakehouse for face painting, balloon sculptures, a craft show, refreshments and a visit with Santa Claus.

Words & Ideas Albany Institute of History & Art 125 Washington Ave., Albany albanyinstitute.org (518) 463-4478 Sunday, Nov. 18: Lecture: Making it American. 2 p.m.

Joseph Garver, curator of maps, Harvard College Library, will show how the simplest map can reveal our history, how people perceive and imagine the spaces they occupy and events that were significant in shaping the landscape or life of the places they call home.

Friday, Dec. 7: Meet the Artist Book Signing. 6 p.m. Troy native John Emmett Connors is well known for his paintings

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depicting city streets around the world, but the neighborhoods of Troy and Lansingburgh have a special resonance in his new book John Emmett Connors, Artist from Troy, written with Vito F. Grasso.

Sunday, Dec. 9: Lecture and Book Signing. 2 p.m. Join longtime political insider Matthew L. Lifflander as he brings to life the dramatic story of the rise and fall of William Sulzer, one of the most interesting and colorful figures in American political history.

Sunday, Dec. 16: Peter Christoph Lecture. 2 p.m. Peter Christoph, former associate librarian, New York State Library, will examine Gerrit Niver’s life from his one-room-schoolhouse days in Bethlehem, to his years in the 7th Cavalry under General Custer, where he lost his life in the battle of Little Big Horn.

Sunday, Jan. 6: Making it American Lecture. 2 p.m.

Amanda Burdan, assistant curator, Brandywine River Museum, will illustrate how French Impressionism was not simply adopted, but adapted and repurposed by American artists.

Albany Public Library Main Branch 161 Washington Ave., Albany albanypubliclibrary.org/ locations/main/ (518) 427-4300 Friday, Feb. 8: Albany Symphony presents “Bronfman Plays Beethoven.” 12 p.m. Music Director David Alan Miller conducts lively interviews with Albany Symphony guest artists on Fridays at Noon prior to ASO Concerts.

Bronck Museum County Route 42, Coxsackie gchistory.org (518) 731-6490 Saturday, Nov. 17 - Sunday, Nov. 18: Chilly Willy Winter’s Eve Tours. 11 a.m. The Bronck houses will be decorated for the celebrations of Martinmas, St. Nicholas Day and St. Lucia Day. The clanking of chains will accompany the retelling of ancient legends.

Clifton ParkHalfmoon Library 475 Moe Road, Clifton Park Tuesday, Nov. 27: Local author series: Coleen Paratore. 7 p.m. The author of The Wedding Planner’s Daughter and sequels, newly released Dreamsleeves, and her new picture book Big.

College of Saint Rose 959 Madison Ave., Albany strose.edu Thursday, Nov. 15: Frequency North Presents: Melissa Febos and Eduardo C. Corral. 7:30 p.m. Frequency North, the visiting writers reading series at The College of Saint Rose, returns with the most extensive lineup of outstanding authors and poets in its eight-year history.

Melissa Febos is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Whip Smart (St. Martin’s Press 2010), which Kirkus Reviews said “expertly captures grace within depravity.”

Thursday, Nov. 29: Joshua Rubenstein lecture. 7 p.m.

Author of Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary’s Life, will present a lecture on the distinguished revolutionary figure at Milne Hall on the Downtown Campus of the University at Albany.

Thursday, Feb. 7: Frequency North: Nitty Gritty Slam. 7:30 p.m. Albany’s first official slam certified by Poetry Slam Inc. Thursday, March 21: Frequency North: Kaya Oakes and David Yezzi. 7:30 p.m. Author Kaya Oakes and poet David Yezzi.

Oakes’ most recent book is “Radical Reinvention: An Unlikely Return to the Catholic Church.” Her previous nonfiction book, “Slanted and Enchanted: The Evolution of Indie Culture,” was selected as a San Francisco Chronicle notable book. Yezzi, born and raised in Albany, is the author of “The Hidden Model” and “Azores,” a Slate magazine best book of the year.

EMPAC (The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) 110 8th St., Troy empac.rpi.edu (518) 276-3921 Saturday, Nov. 17: Dr. Elie During. 5 p.m. The lecture will focus on the meaning and role of silence.

Union College Everest Lounge 807 Union St., Schenectady Thursday, Jan. 24: “The Meaning of Life in a Material World.” 4:30 p.m. Professor Owen Flanagan from Duke University will speak as part of the College’s annual Philosophy Speaker Series.

Thursday, Feb. 7: “Wrongdoing and Relationships: The Problem

pride of new york harvest fest Sample and purchase from nearly 100 vendors from throughout New York State, at The Desmond, Nov. 17-18. For more info, visit timesunion.com/harvestfest.

— photo by John Carl D’Annibale/ Times Union Archive of the Stranger.” 4:30 p.m.

Professor George Sher from Rice University will speak as part of the College’s annual Philosophy Speaker Series.

Thursday, Feb. 21: “Why Metaphors Make Good Insults.”

4:30 p.m. Professor Elisabeth Camp from the University of Pennsylvania will speak.

Thursday, March 7: “Aristotle on Fear and Tragedy.” 4:30 p.m.

Professor Stephen Leighton from Queens University will speak.

Hudson Valley Community College Bulmer Telecommunications Center Auditorium 80 Vandenburgh Ave., Troy hvcc.edu (518) 629-7180 Thursday, Nov. 15: Brass and Fire: The Poetry of War. 12 p.m.

Soldier-poet Brian Turner served seven years in the US Army, including a year as an infantry

team leader in Iraq and a deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Turner is the author of two collections of poetry, “Phantom Noise” and “Here, Bullet.”

New York State Museum Cultural Education Center 222 Madison Ave., Albany Thursday, Nov. 15: David W. Blight, historian and author.

7:30 p.m. The featured speaker for the 2012 Researching New York Conference, David W. Blight will present a lecture, “America Divided, Then and Now: The Civil War in our National and Local Imagination.”

Old Songs

Community Arts Center 37 S. Main St., Voorheesville oldsongs.org (518) 765-2815 Sunday, Nov. 25 - Sunday, March 24: Sunday Four Poetry Open Mic. 3 p.m. Held the last Sunday of each month.

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall 30 Second St., Troy troymusichall.org (518) 273-0038 Saturday, Dec. 1: Reinventing Radio: An Evening with Ira Glass. 8 p.m. Join Ira as he leads the audience through the creation of This American Life and talks about the state of media today.

University at Albany Campus Center – Assembly Hall 1400 Washington Ave., Albany Monday, Nov. 19: Trita Parsi, International Affairs Scholar and Author. 8 p.m. Trita Parsi, scholar and advocate of diplomatic approaches to Mideast conflicts, will deliver a talk, “U.S. and Iran: Between War and Diplomacy.”

Recital Hall Performing Arts Center

Museums

Calvino’s beloved book, this exhibit features the work of 10 diverse artists who re-imagine urban landscapes both familiar and fantastical.

Through Sunday, March 31: Sanford Biggers: The Cartographer’s Conundrum. A major multi-disciplinary installation By New York-based artist Sanford Biggers.

Through Monday, April 1: Oh, Canada. The largest survey of contemporary Canadian art ever produced outside Canada, “Oh Canada” features work by more than 60 artists who hail from every province and nearly every territory in the country, spanning multiple generations and working in all media.

Fenimore Art Museum

National Museum of Dance

1400 Washington Ave., Albany Monday, Nov. 12: Denis Johnson, playwright, poet, and fiction writer — Staged Reading. 7 p.m. A staged reading of Denis Johnson’s new play Des Moines.

Friday, Dec. 7: J. Hoberman, film critic. 8 p.m. J. Hoberman, senior film critic at the Village Voice from 1988 to 2012, is admired for his wit, intellectual energy and knowledge of experimental, international, independent, and Hollywood cinema.

5798 Route 80, Cooperstown fenimoreartmuseum.org/ fenimore/visit/experience (607) 547-1400 Through Sunday, Dec. 30: Tasha Tudor: Around the Year.

Illustrates the changing seasons and their special celebrations with over 100 outstanding examples of this beloved author and illustrator’s original art for children’s books and greeting cards.

Through Sunday, Dec. 30: On the Home Front: New York in the Civil War. Civil War-era clothing and decorative objects from Fenimore Art Museum’s permanent collection.

Go! Where Children Discover The World 89 Warren St., Glens Falls worldchildrensmuseum.org (518) 793-2773 Through Sunday, Nov. 25: Discovering World Textiles in Clothing and Small Images.

Colorful, unique patterns and designs are a feature of clothing and other textiles around the world.

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art 87 Marshall St., North Adams, Mass. massmoca.org (413) 664-4481 Through Monday, Feb. 4: Invisible Cities. Titled after Italo

Through Monday, Dec. 17: Focus on Nature XII. A juried exhibition of natural and cultural history illustration that features artwork from around the world.

Artists depict biological, geological, and archeological subjects using a wide range of media, from traditional watercolor to recently developed digital techniques

Skidmore College The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery

99 S. Broadway, Saratoga Springs dancemuseum.org (518) 584-2225 Through Sunday, Nov. 18: Eleo Pomare. This exhibit celebrates the career of ColombianAmerican choreographer, Eleo Pomare. Pomare’s work is famed for its sociopolitical themes and his importance as a black dance pioneer.

815 N. Broadway, Saratoga Springs Through Sunday, Dec. 30: Hearing Pictures. Sound is everywhere and nowhere. Intangible and invisible to the human eye, its presence haunts, often creating the impression of imagined sound or auditory hallucinations.

Through Sunday, Dec. 2: Terry Adkins: Recital. Combining sculpture and live performance, Terry Adkins’s installations pay tribute to the memories of under-recognized figures in our collective culture, including John Brown, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, John Coltrane, Bessie Smith, and Sojourner Truth to name a few.

New York State Museum

University at Albany

264 Madison Ave., Albany nysm.nysed.gov (518) 474-5877 Through Sunday, Jan. 20: 1934: A New Deal for Artists. Examines more than 50 paintings from the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum created under the auspices of the Public Works of Art. Through Sunday, May 12: An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War. The State Museum, Library, and Archives present this rich and complex story in a 6,500-square-foot exhibition at the New York State Museum Through Monday, Dec. 31: Seneca Ray Stoddard: Capturing the Adirondacks. West Gallery Seneca Ray Stoddard was a leading figure in inspiring people, through his photographs and writings, to visit the Adirondacks in the post-Civil War era.

in Contemporary Art. Artists whose obsessive desire to record day-to-day activities, document private worlds, or chart the passage of time is reflected in work that serves as either a staging ground for more ambitious projects, or as an end in itself. At times confessional in tone, and presented in a range of media from journals and sketchbooks to video and sound recordings, the work of these artists draws upon self-imposed rituals, secret narratives, and personal longings; they give tangible form to fleeting ideas, experiences, and emotions. Artists include: Simon Evans, Byron Kim, Meridith McNeal, Laurel Nakadate, David Shapiro, and Martin Wilner. Additional artists under consideration are: Sadie Benning, Daniela Comani, Sean Landers, Jonas Mekas, and Danica Phelps, among others.

Video screenings and collaborative programming with the New York State Writers Institute are in the planning stages. A 42page, fully illustrated catalogue

will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.

Galleries Albany Institute of History & Art 125 Washington Ave., Albany albanyinstitute.org (518) 463-4478 Through Sunday, Jan. 6: Artistic Impressions — American Paintings from the Florence Griswold Museum. The exhibition of paintings and sculpture will include a selection of 18thcentury portraits by Connecticut artists such as Ralph Earl, John Brewster, and Mary Way and early 19th century landscapes and genre paintings by Frederic E. Church, John Kensett, George Smillie, Worthington Wittredge, and John Ludlow Morton. The major focus of the exhibition will highlight the history of the Old Lyme Art Colony including Florence Griswold.

Through Sunday, Jan. 27: The Eternal Return — Portraits by Stephanie Rose. The first solo museum exhibition of work by the well-known abstract painter, Stephanie Rose, will feature 23 portraits of distinguished poets, novelists, art critics, filmmakers, photographers, performers, art collectors and philanthropists. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Elizabeth C. Baker.

The Sage Colleges Rathbone Little Gallery 140 New Scotland Ave., Albany sage.edu/academics/ visualarts/little_gallery/ Through Friday, Dec. 14: Milton Glaser: The Posters, A Survey. For many, Milton Glaser is the personification of American graphic design. Best known for cofounding New York Magazine, innumerable posters including the iconic Bob Dylan and the enduring I Love NY campaign.

IRA GLASS chats about the evolution of radio and This American Life at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Dec. 1.

— photo by Tom Murphy VII

University Art Museum 1400 Washington Ave., Albany albany.edu/museum (518) 442-4035 Through Saturday, Dec. 8: Dana Hoey. Dana Hoey has examined what it means to be female through her photography for more than 20 years. In exploring issues of gender and culture, Hoey uses both staged and directed photography.

Through Saturday, Dec. 8: Rachel Foullon. Rachel Foullon’s sculptures constructed from cedar boards and hand-dyed canvas reference a former agrarian existence based on utilitarian need that has long been subsumed by modern progress. Her materials are wrought with care: wood is custom-milled and meticulously stained; fabrics are hand-dyed and hand-sewn.

Through Saturday, April 6: Day After Day: The Diaristic Impulse

Listings compiled by the News & Information Services Department staff: Shannon Fromma, CJ Lais, Adrienne Freeman, Jennifer Patterson, Azra Haqqie and Bebe Nyquist. Calendars are compiled about six weeks before delivery, which is the first Sunday of April, June, September and December. To view a complete list of events, or to submit a listing, go to events.timesunion.com. For more information, call 454-5420.

timesunion.com/explore 13

our backyard

Winter’s Best Five cool winter-weather hangouts by deborah renfrew

1

Maple Ridge Ski Center 

If this is your winter to learn to ski or snowboard, Maple Ski Ridge, just west of Schenectady, is a great modest-sized place to start. This single mountain ski area is served by two chairlifts, a handle tow and a rope tow that get you to the top of eight different trails ranging from beginners to the most difficult, Black Diamond, or to the 250-foot vertical-drop slope.

The Solomon-certified ski school staff provides private and group lessons, and Open: Saturday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; state-of-the-art equipment is available for Sunday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Tuesdayrental. Best of all, it’s a friendly place — Friday, 3-9 p.m.; holiday hours and nearby for anyone in the Capital Reon website. gion. If tubing is more to your liking, the Admission: Rates vary for Ridge, as local visitors call it, has three weekday, weekend or holiday lanes suitable for all ages and is said to usage and amount of time on be “the longest tubing area in the Northslopes. Passes are reloadable east.” Throughout the winter fun events at a discount. Season-pass are scheduled that include competitions packages start at $99. and celebrations. The base lodge and fireContact: (518) 381-4700 or place are perfect for warming up and enmapleskiridge.com joying meals and snacks.

— photo by Philip Kamrass/Times Union Archive

— photo courtesy Proctors

2

GE Theatre at Proctors

Everybody knows Proctors Theatre in Schenectady brings the Capital Region the best of Broadway and other performances. In another part of the Proctors complex, though, is the GE Theatre, a cozier venue modeled on the black-box theater style that offers community theater, live performances from outside venues projected onto a 35x50-foot giant screen, comedy acts and more. Ralphie is still begging for a BB gun from Santa as the Classic Theatre Guild begins the theater’s winter season with a family-favorite performance of A Christmas Story. Thrill-loving audiences will enjoy the realistic visual impact of hurricanes, thunOpen: Varies according to derstorms and dust tempests taking place way performance schedules beyond our little planet in National GeographAdmission: Varies according ic’s giant-screen film The Wildest Weather in to individual shows the Solar System later in the season. Check Contact: (518) 382-3884 or the website for details of these and others proctors.org/places/ge-theatre presentations taking place through April.

3

Irish American Heritage Museum 

The oft-repeated declaration that “everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day” is perhaps testament to the legacy Irish immigrants have left on America. The recently opened Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany seeks to tell the story of the Irish influence in America. Exhibits, collections of artifacts, lectures, book signings and archives detail family life, music, Open: Wednesday-Friday, military service, labor, literature, the role 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Saturdayof women and religion. Changing exhibSunday, 12-4 p.m. its focus on the Irish role in building the Admission: Suggested Erie Canal, Irish-American presidents and donation is adults, $3; seniors, the Irish Famine of 1845-1853 when emi$2 children 12 and under, free. gration from Ireland reached its height.

Some programs have a charge.

Special programs — talks, performances Contact: (518) 427-1916 or and activities — are offered on a regular irishamericanheritagemuseum.org schedule, as detailed on the website.

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— photo courtesy Tang Teaching Gallery

4

Tang Teaching Gallery at Skidmore College 

The advantage of an art gallery associated with a major college is its ability to be eclectic. Contemporary art exhibits and programs at the Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery at Skidmore College benefit from the input of faculty and students in all disciplines, and are often made more provocative by components of video and live performance. The current exhibit, We the People, a look at constitutions of various countries, is described on the Tang’s website as “a dynamic laboratory for exploring constitutions as a process, embodied by the people who create them and for whom they serve.” It was born of the election year and explores citizenship, the voting process, town hall politics and community activism. Other exhibits this winter include 30 years of work by renowned 1960s-’70s graphic artist Corita Kent, reflecting her civil rights, women’s rights and anti-war activism during the riotous 1960s; and vibrant textural paintings, politically and socially inspired, by Carrie Moyer from the past 20 years. Students work with museum staff to curate exhibits and show their own work as well. The museum offers special Thursday-night programs, gallery tours, art lessons, artist discussions, lectures, films and Open: Tuesdaymusic, and regularly scheduled family events. Designed Sunday, 12-5 p.m. by architect Antoine Predock to complement Skidmore’s Admission: Free campus and opened in 2000, the Tang is a transparent Contact: (518) space featuring a naturally lit center atrium and a roof580-8080 or tang. top patio where, in warm weather, much public programskidmore.edu ming takes place.

— photo by Philip Kamrass/Times Union Archive

— photo courtesy Children’s World Awareness Museum

5

Children’s World Awareness Museum 

If you’re fortunate enough to have a kid in tow — your own or someone else’s — you will find a visit to the World Awareness Children’s Museum in Glens Falls to be an engaging afternoon of new and fascinating discoveries about other countries and cultures through the eyes of a child. But if you’re an adult on your own, go anyway for this unique experience. Permanent hands-on exhibits, arranged to lead visitors on a sort of rectangular journey, bring you through the art and music, fashions, economies, sports, architecture and holiday customs of other lands. Ditto the changing exhibits. The museum offers a host of programs that include talks, craft and art sessions and demonstrations for all ages. If the gift shop is one of your faOpen: Wednesday-Saturday, vorite parts of a museum visit, the World 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Awareness shop doesn’t disappoint. It Admission: adults, $5; children offers mainly fair trade items and many 3 years and younger, free made from recycled materials, including Contact: (518) 793-2773 or unique jewelry and scarves, decorative worldchildrensmuseum.org goods, low-tech toys, books and CDs. E

timesunion.com/explore 15

art

The Here and Now

currier and ives’ lithographs offer a look into 19th-century nostalgia and history by brianna snyder » photos courtesy albany institute of history and art

W

hat is it we want to see when we go to look at art? Beauty?

Honesty? Fantasy?

Of course, the answer is different for everyone. But one shared experience can be getting a better sense of history. Some of the greatest relics of the 19th century are the thousands of Currier and Ives lithographs mass-produced and widely distributed across the country. They feature classic winter scenes, home hearths, families gathering for Thanksgiving, sleigh rides, and other feel-good imagery typical of the time period.

Beginning in February, the Albany Institute of History and Art will host a traveling exhibit of works by Currier and Ives. Doug McCombs, curator of history and material culture at the institute, says the exhibit, titled The Legacy of Currier and Ives, is broken into four specific themes: identity, home, success and the artist. About 65 prints will be on display on the third floor of the museum.

Nathaniel Currier first made a lithographic name for himself in 1840 with his reproduction of “Awful Conflagration of the Steam Boat Lexington,” an artist’s depiction of the sinking of a steamboat four miles off the coast of Long Island.

At the time, the disaster rivaled the Titanic in terms of horrifying boat tragedies.

Currier had been an independent lithographer of prints focusing on current events and, following the success of the Lexington print, shifted his focus on

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producing more lithographs like that one. He partnered with bookkeeper and accountant James Merritt Ives in 1857 and the two began commissioning various genres of art from artists all over the country.

“There were certain themes, certain subjects you do see being done over and over and over again,” McCombs says. “They are often these pastoral scenes.

They’re saccharine, almost sickeningly sweet, sort of, in some ways. … Certainly Currier and Ives were good businessmen. They knew what would sell.”

These warm, comfortable prints were more popular than the current-events scenes from the earlier years. Which makes sense. How many people (or hotels or doctors’ waiting rooms) want to hang images of historic tragedies or disasters on their walls?

“The important thing to keep in mind is Currier and Ives were doing their prints in great times of change and upheaval,” McCombs says. “The American Civil War, rapid urbanization, population growth in the cities, industrialization — there’s a lot going on that’s changing in American life. What’s very popular (were) paintings that showed a world not in change. A lot of these scenes were of farmsteads and winter scenes.” In other words, the most popular Currier and Ives prints were nonthreatening, nostalgic pictures and ideas of a comfortable, reliable past.

» The Legacy of Currier and Ives, Feb. 9-June 15, Albany Institute of History and Art, 125 Washington Ave., Albany, (518) 463-4478, albanyinstitute.org

hile many might assume that Currier and Ives are the artists, in reality the men hired artists to create the scenes. “Some artists have become very well known in their own right,” says McCombs. Specifically, McCombs mentions Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait and George Henry Durrie. Tait became famous for his hunting, fishing and field-sporting scenes, McCombs says. Durrie was “doing those sort of classic winter scenes: the home, people coming in for Thanksgiving on the sleigh, all of those kinds of sentimental sort of home images. ... Those images are always reproduced,” he says.

The other fascinating detail about lithograph production in this time was that the art commissioned by Currier and Ives would inevitably go through an editing process. To make a lithograph, someone would have to redraw the painting, etching it onto a slab of limestone. The finished product would look like just a black outline of the original, and women and children were hired to color the prints in — very much like watercolors. That’s why you’ll see variations among several of one print.

The exhibit will feature works by Tait and Durrie — as well as many others — and also will have a catalog available for browsing that shows each of the prints in the show accompanied by essays about why various prints became so popular.

“Each print really is unique,” says McCombs.

E

Photo by Larry Master

W

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music

Spiritual Notes yo-yo ma on life, death & music

by janet reynolds » photo by max wittaker

O

n the day that I am scheduled to have a 10-minute phone interview with cellist superstar Yo-Yo Ma, who is doing interviews back to back for 90 minutes, I dutifully e-mail my bio to the publicist as requested.

In it I mention that I, too, play the cello.

When the phone rings at 4:35, I pick it up and a man begins talking. “Soooo, I’m going to be in the Albany area mid-winter and I’m looking to borrow a cello,” he says. “I don’t really know the area at all. Do you know anyone who might have a cello I could borrow?”

By now I am laughing. Yo-Yo Ma just started an interview joking with a total stranger! How great is that?

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But as we talk for the next 30 minutes, I realize something: The way Ma started that interview is how he approaches life and, of course, music. While plenty of other celebrities would pick up the phone with a heavy sigh at interview number 8,000 in a day when many interviewers ask the same questions, Ma instead approached our chat enthusiastically and open to whatever he might hear.

It’s an attitude that has prompted Ma to explore all kinds of musical collaborations in his decades-long career. In 1998, he established the Silk Road Project to promote the study of the cultural, artistic and intellectual traditions along the ancient Silk Road trade route that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Since then more than 60 works have been commissioned specifically for the Silk Road Ensemble, which tours annually.

His extensive music recordings — his discography is over 75 albums, more than 15 of them Grammy winners — defy categorization. Beyond his Silk Road Ensemble work, he has collaborated with everyone from Bobby McFerrin — their version of Flight of the Bumblebee is unbelievable — to Mark O’Connor, Edgar Meyer and Diana Krall. Several years ago, he re-recorded Bach’s unaccompanied suites for cello, this time creating a multimedia series in which he performed each suite to a video visually expressing the music. Suite No. 6 Sarabande, for instance, featured ice dancers Torvill and Dean.

And Ma continues to perform classical music extensively. In his performance with the Albany Symphony Jan. 12, he will perform something fairly new — John Williams’ Elegy for Cello and Orchestra — and a cello standard, Dvorak’s stunning Cello Concerto.

FREE ADMISSION

W

hen Ma approaches a new piece of music, he starts with its backstory to better understand its complexity. Williams’ Elegy, for instance, was first written for a musician friend whose children had been murdered by their father, who killed himself. “You have such layers of contradictory emotions — the love of your children, the loss, their incredible vibrancy no longer there,” he says. “This piece — and bless John Williams’ gentle heart — he was able to capture all those amazingly contradictory emotions and on a pretty spiritual note.”

While the Dvorak was written over 100 years before Elegy, they share this death motif. “The whole ending is about death,” Ma says, noting that ASO conductor David Alan Miller studied the score and discovered that the last violin solo in the piece echoes Dvorak’s sister-in-law’s favorite piece. (She was apparently Dvorak’s first love and had recently died.) In the score, Dvorak wrote, “To those that know me, they would understand and to those that don’t, it doesn’t matter,” Ma says.

“How amazing is the pairing of the elegy and the Dvorak?,” Ma says. “It’s about death and transfiguration. It’s about celebration and mourning.

“In a way, we as a society don’t like to think about death. It’s sort of off limits.

We insure ourselves so that there’s compensation if you die,” Ma continues. “We like things practical. And dying is impractical. It’s a nuisance. That’s where the purpose of music can come in: It allows us to deal with things — gives space to deal with uncomfortable subjects and gives us … a shared moment.”

Rethinking works he’s performed multiple times helps keep the music fresh, both to Ma and his audience. (Listen, for instance, to the difference between his recording of Bach’s cello suites when he was in his 20s and the multimedia Inspired by Bach series, done in his 40s.)

“I do believe that the sounds you hear from somebody who is fluent in making sounds are really the tip of the iceberg. They’re the audible part of a person,” he says. “What’s below the surface are really all your thoughts and experiences, your values, your character. So the act of going through life and experiencing it and reacting to it and thinking and feeling — you hear that in the playing.”

At 57, Ma has plenty of life experience to inform anything he plays. “You’ve loved. You’ve lost and you learn more about love, the different ways it’s given, nurtured, so I think I listen better,” he says. “Part of the purpose of music is to transcend technique. If you can do that, you reveal who you are. Otherwise you’re just technique.”

Which is just another reason why he loves collaborating with different artists in different genres. “I am a better player because I’ve done more stuff,” Ma says, giving a home analogy to illustrate his point. If you’re someone who travels and collects mementos, for instance, anyone walking into your home can see you’ve been places.

“You’re showing a multidimensional existence,” he says. “That’s what you hear when you explore around and come back home. You hear those little moments.”

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» YO-YO MA PERFORMS WITH THE ALBANY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Jan. 12, 7 p.m., at the Palace Theater, Albany. For more information, albanysymphony.com

clarkart.edu

Williamstown, Massachusetts 413 458 2303 Jan Gossaert, Portrait of a Gentleman (detail), c. 1530. © The Clark

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theater

Condensed Wizardry a send-up of the harry potter series by john adamian » photo courtesy of potted potters

I

f the relatively subdued response that met the publication earlier in the fall of J.K. Rowling’s first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, left you wondering whether the author’s literary creations have lost the fascination they once had, you’d be mistaken.

It’s true no midnight lines of eager fans snaked outside of bookstores for her new work, but that may be because not many are interested in her adult fiction. The popularity of Rowling’s Harry Potter, however, hasn’t died down in the five years since she published the final installment of her fantasy series. That’s why Potted Potter — the Unauthorized Harry Experience — a Parody by Dan and Jeff — keeps drawing crowds around the world, from Hong Kong and Australia to Europe. The show, a two-man send-up of the entire seven-book Harry Potter series condensed into a 70-minute show, comes to Schenectady on Jan. 15.

Daniel Jackson spoke to EXPLORE by phone from his London flat recently. “If anything, this phenomenon seems to be even stronger than it was before,” he says, referring to the unflagging nature of Potter mania.

Jackson has been doing this for years. Along with the other half of the duo, Jefferson Turner, Jackson has performed the piece over a thousand times. In some cases, he’s seen generations of young Harry fans turn into parents and bring their own kids to the shows. He’s seen shows where bachelorette parties show up dressed in sexy wizard outfits, sitting one row behind a row of kids dressed in Dumbledore costumes. He’s been doing the show long enough that they’ve had to trade out some of the more dated popculture references, say a mention of Rihanna’s 2007 “Umbrella” for instance.

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» Potted Potter — the Unauthorized Harry Experience will be at Proctors, 432 State St., Schenectady, Jan. 15-20. For tickets call (518) 346-6204, or go to proctors.org.

otted Potter takes the jumble of fantasy-obsessed pop culture and turns it into part of the plot. The production has elements of play-within-a-play, behind-the-scenes farce, with the two characters struggling to put on a highly distilled version of the Harry Potter story, with a very limited — you might say impoverished — stage set and costumes. Adding to the challenge, Jackson’s character is kind of a Harry Potter novice, and he can’t quite keep his Voldemorts

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straight with his Gandalfs, confusing elements of the Potter series with The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and other tidbits of popular young-adult fantasy. Jackson’s character has to compete with and support the ultimate Harry Potter super-fan, who naturally fills the choice role of Harry. He’s the guy who knows every in and out of the plot, every stage in the development of Hermione’s character, every minor rule of Quidditch. It’s a bit of Laurel and Hardy or Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. continued on page 25

november 17&18 The Desmond Hotel & Conference Center Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.

ORDER TICKETS TODAY:

— Benjamin Franklin

www.timesunion.com/harvestfest

T

he holiday season is one of the most popular times of the year. From gift-giving to the great food and drinks that cover our tables, no time is more about family and friends than the holiday season. Why not kick-off this year’s holiday season celebrating the wonderful harvest that New York has to offer at the 2012 Pride of New York Harvest Festival?

(And, we’re returning to our old stomping grounds this year.)

The 16th annual Pride of New York Harvest Festival will be held November 17 and 18 at The Desmond Hotel and Conference Center in Albany. This celebration features nearly 100 food and wine vendors and is the only local wine and food event to focus exclusively on New York state products.

Don’t think you can take an entire afternoon and just relax?

Well, this year’s event provides the perfect opportunity to kick off your holiday shopping season by purchasing gifts for the hard to shop for person on your list. From wine to cookies, the Harvest Festival can provide that perfect addition to your gift baskets — or allow you to completely develop the gift basket while wandering the aisles.

But the perfect gift may just be tickets to our Grand Tasting Harvest Market. Returning to the courtyards and ballrooms at The Desmond, this is your opportunity to visit with all of our vendors. You will have the opportunity to sample wines from Long Island to the Niagara Escarpment and everywhere in between. In addition, you’ll find apples, cheeses, sauces and more from food vendors. And you can always rest at our lunch buffet,

which you can purchase for an additional charge.

In addition, every ticket to the Grand Tasting Harvest Market you purchase includes a seat in a seminar of your choice. These special learning experiences give you the chance to lean back and listen to some of the leading experts in the field. And you’ll get to sample a special selection of wines and foods, specially paired together by the leader of your seminar.

The Grand Tasting Harvest Market is open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

If you really want to relax though, and escape all of it, spend the entire weekend with us.

For one low price, you get two Grand Tasting Harvest Market tickets for both days, two tickets to the Uncork New York! Gala and deluxe accommodations at The Desmond on Saturday night.

Is there no better way to celebrate the holiday season then a wonderful get-away for two, completely surrounded by the smells and tastes that only New York can provide?

For more information or to order tickets, please visit www. timesunion.com/harvestfest. Remember though, seminars are only open to those people holding a Grand Tasting Harvest Market ticket and only people over the age of 21 may sample the wines.

Also, please don’t drink and drive. If you plan to sample wines, we can help you arrange a ride We look forward to helping you relax and celebrate the holiday season, while offering you the best wine and food that New York has to offer.

november 17&18

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theater continued from page 20 So if Turner plays Harry, that leaves something like 340 characters for Jackson to play — which makes for a pretty antic performance. With each book allotted roughly 10 minutes, Dan and Jeff have to enact some comic feats of compression, most of which take place at a keyed-up pace, with fake devil horns, cheesy wands and fright wigs and over-the-top accents serving as shorthand for the characters.

The production has a race-against-the-clock feel, with the actors performing in a self-consciously hyper tempo, a bit like competitive eaters trying to wolf down dozens of hot dogs in a minute. The crowd gets caught up in the unlikelihood of seeing all seven books zipped through without finesse or nuance.

The pace of the performance and the scope of the information that he has to convey on stage sometimes seem to leave Jackson with not a lot of mental bandwidth for non-Potter content in his brain. “I wake up shouting out spells,” jokes Jackson.

Jackson and Turner are big fans of the Potter series, and they approach the project as a loving parody. The production is loaded with enough Potter-obsessive trivia and details to keep the biggest fans entertained, and yet the show aims for that clever mix of arcana and broad-stroke laughs to get kids, newcomers and parents all roped in.

“Our audience are sort of the die-hard fans and children,” Jackson says.

When thinking about the appeal of the Potter series, Jackson speculates that for him part of the reason that Harry resonates is that he’s a rare species of British hero. Jackson says that English men don’t have a ton of heroes to emulate. “It’s either James Bond or Harry Potter,” says Jackson. And, despite

the super-human wizard skills, and the cosmic battling of evil, Harry Potter is a lot easier for your average kid to identify with.

Jackson and Turner have pondered what might be next for their theatrical parodies. (The two also do a show about pirates.) But, though other titles have suggested themselves for similar treatment, nothing seems to conjure the devotion of fans or the narrative richness of the Potter series.

The pair has looked at Twilight, the popular vampire series, but it didn’t really cut it, says Jackson “It’s not the same thing,” he says. “There’s not really a story there.”

Indeed, the Potter phenomenon is unlike anything we’ve seen in recent pop culture. Before the Potter series, it had been decades since a book had connected entire generations of boys and girls. Even with books like the Narnia series and The Lord of the Rings, it was mostly the already book-ish kids who were won over. The Harry Potter books attracted kids who hadn’t enjoyed reading before.

Harry Potter created a generation of readers. For the first time, you could safely assume that the average 12-year-old had read a particular book — a big book.

Jackson says it’s “sort of Beatlemania, but for books.” As with the music of the Beatles, the Harry Potter books are likely to remain standards of young adulthood. People will probably be riffing on these stories 50 years from now.

For Jackson and Turner, the willingness of the fans to let the Potted Potter spoof become a part of their rich fantasy realm drives home the power of the story. “It’s a very humbling experience,” Jackson says. “It’s an honor because people put us into this Potter world.”

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outdoors

Winter Wonderland camping doesn’t have to end when summer does by gillian scott » photos by jim muller

Y

ou say you love winter. When the temperatures drop and the white flakes start to fall, you’re among the first ones out there with your skis, sled or snowshoes.

But do you really love winter? Really, really love it? Do you love it enough to camp in it?

For some Capital Region residents, their love of sleeping outdoors doesn’t end when the seasons change. “I love winter camping because there’s no bugs, there’s no people and there’s something about the quiet of the woods,” says Schodack resident Brian Wantuch. “The snow absorbs so much of the sound and there are no leaves on the trees. I enjoy the solitude.”

Wantuch says he also appreciates the challenge of being outdoors in the winter. “It’s more of a survival instinct that kicks in,” he says. “A lot of it is when you’re done with it and you come back and you think, jeez, it was minus 25 degrees last night and I was in a lean-to and I survived.”

Wantuch is not alone.

“It does lend itself to a certain coolness factor in that you are one of only a very select few sleeping outside in the dead of winter,” says Carlisle resident Matthew Hay. Hay has been winter camping for about 15 years. His uncle took him on his first trip when he was 27. Over the years, they’ve convinced friends and family members to join them — trips now

26 explore

The 10 essentials take place at least three or four times each winter — and, with Hay’s brother Mark, they founded the website wintercampers. com, where they share winter camping tales and information.

Winter camping isn’t just a guy thing, either. Karen “Big K” Rosencrans, a longtime instructor with the Winter Mountaineering School, says men and women may go out in the woods for different reasons — men may be more interested in the challenge and the competitive factors while women tend to be more interested in the aesthetic experience — but neither sex is more suited to winter camping than the other.

“It may be physical, but it’s also a lot of mental preparation,” says Rosencrans. “When you’re out there so long there’s fatigue.

You get tired. You can choose to be cranky or you can choose to say, ‘Hey, it’s minus-20, isn’t this cool?’”

“I feel like if you love the outdoors, you love the outdoors.

The cold isn’t going to keep you inside,” says Ryan Doyle, outdoor leadership coordinator for the Adirondack Mountain Club.

Winter camping, he says, is “just another way to get out into the outdoors and experience all the things it has to offer.”

The ADK offers a Winter Camping 101 class every year in the Adirondack High Peaks. The course takes place over a long weekend, with participants meeting on Saturday morning, hiking in to a camp location, camping Saturday and Sunday nights and hiking out on Monday. continued on page 29 

The list of items you should bring along to winter camp in safety and comfort is too long to reproduce here. But there are 10 essential systems recommended by the Seattle-based group the Mountaineers that experts endorse. These systems can be adapted according to season: 1. Navigation 2. Sun protection 3. Insulation 4. Illumination 5. First-aid supplies 6. Fire 7. Repair kit and tools 8. Nutrition 9. Hydration 10. Emergency shelter

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continued from page 26 “We’re looking for folks who have extensive three-season experience with camping and backpacking,” Doyle says, describing the course as “a real overview of all the different winter skills you need to be comfortable, to have a minimal amount of risk and to do a trip that’s relatively low-impact on the land.”

The course not only covers camping skills sich as how to keep a tent stable in soft snow or how to get water when streams and lakes are frozen, but also nutrition, snowshoeing, and planning and preparation, with a big emphasis on decision-making.

“Winter presents some added challenges with the cold and the lack of daylight you have,” Doyle says.

“There aren’t as many folks out in the backcountry that time of year so we want to make sure folks are making good decisions about the things that they do and their behavior so they don’t find themselves in some kind of hitch.”

“With summer camping, you can get away with inexperience and mistakes a lot more than you can in the winter,” Hay says. “A situation that could lead to an uncomfortable experience or night in the summer can be deadly in the winter. ... The nights can be very long and miserable if you are not ready for them.”

For anyone interested in giving winter camping a try, our winter campers recommend starting out slow, maybe even just trying it out in the backyard.

Some campgrounds, such as the ADK’s campground at Heart Lake, are open in the winter (though amenities such as toilets and showers may be closed). At a campground, new winter campers can experience the outdoors, but still be close to their cars if they need to bail out during the night. You can find year-round state campgrounds through reserveamerica.com.

“I really encourage folks to walk before you run, especially in the wintertime

when the risks are a little bit higher,” Doyle says. “Before you know it, you can take all the things that you already know and tweak them and hone them and you’ll be able to travel in the wintertime with success and comfort.”

E Gillian Scott co-writes the Times Union’s Outdoors blog.

Visit blog.timesunion.com/outdoors.

Want to get started — but a little worried? Try taking a class.

Winter Camping 101: Jan 12-14, 2013. $180 for ADK members, $198 for non-members.

Call the Adirondack Mountain Club at (518) 523-3441 for more information.

Winter Mountaineering School: Feb. 1-7, 2013.

Teaches camping and winter climbing skills in weekend and weeklong sessions $350-$405. programinfo@winterschool.org or winterschool.org

Hot tips from cold-weather campers Brian Wantuch:

bag rated to zero degrees or colder.

Duplicate gear: Carry multiple hats and sets of gloves so you have something dry to use when one pair gets wet from sweat or snow. Make sure multiple members of the group are carrying stoves, in case one stops working.

Try a sled: Even cheap sleds from WalMart can be used to help drag your gear into a backcountry campsite.

Buy good boots: “Good boots are imperative. You need to be able to keep your feet dry and warm.”

Wear synthetic or wool clothing: “Absolutely nothing cotton.”

Get a good sleeping bag: Buy or rent a

Don’t go alone: “For safety’s sake I would say at least a group of three people. If something happens to someone, one person can stay with them while the other goes for help.”

Matthew Hay: Drink up: “You don’t tend to think about drinking water as much when it is cold but you can easily get dehydrated.

Drinking warm beverages helps keep you warm from the inside out.”

Stay warm: Wear layers. Mittens are warmer than gloves. Insulate yourself from the ground when sitting or sleeping by using a closed cell pad or Thermarest-style pad.

Stay dry: Avoid sweating as much as possible. When you get to your destination, change into all dry clothes from head to feet. “Once you start getting chilled it’s harder to get warmed up again.”

Karen Rosencrans: Getting started: “If you’re new, gently move into it. Start in the fall.”

Eat well: “In the winter, you can have a really good menu because you have a refrigerator right there.”

Get good gear: The four expensive essentials — where you should be ready to spend more money — are a good sleeping bag, a rain suit, a backpack and boots. “You have to make sure you get the best you can.”

timesunion.com/explore 29

outdoors

Mountaineering 101 kilburn slide is a good teacher story by phil brown

I

n the first few days of February last year, the Adirondacks got about 15 inches of snow, prompting the state to issue an avalanche warning. Naturally, Josh Wilson and I decided to ski a slide that weekend That’s not as reckless as it sounds. Although slide paths are prone to avalanches, our destination was the Kilburn Slide near Lake Placid, a mellow slope that usually poses little danger. Indeed, guides sometimes take clients to the slide to teach them the fundamentals of winter mountaineering in a safe setting.

Josh and I envisioned the outing as our own course in Ski Mountaineering 101. We planned to use crampons and ice axes to climb a small cliff at the slide’s base, ascend the slide with the help of nylon “skins,” and dig a pit in the snow to assess the avalanche danger.

Incidentally, the Kilburn Slide is a great snowshoe trip, too. You can avoid the cliff by taking a short detour through the woods.

Once on the slide, the ascent is straightforward, albeit strenuous in places. You’ll enjoy views of numerous peaks in the Lake Placid region, including Whiteface, Moose and McKenzie.

We parked in the Monument Falls pull-off along Route 86 east of Lake Placid. The trail to the slide begins on the other side of the highway. Though not marked, it is usually tracked out.

At the outset, I affixed skins on the bottoms of my telemark skis. Skins are marvelous inventions, essential for ski mountaineering. One side of each skin is made of nylon, with a nap that prevents skis from sliding backward, thus enabling skiers to climb steep slopes. The other side is coated with glue that holds the skin in place but doesn’t stick to the ski when the skin is removed.

Unlike me, Josh is a snowboarder (or “knuckle-dragger,” as he describes himself). Now 30, he started snowboarding as a kid and never thought of going telemark. “Why would I ski a slide

30 explore

» This story originally appeared in Adirondack Explorer magazine. For information, go to adirondackexplorer.org.

— photo by josh wilson

if I’ve been snowboarding for years? I never even considered it an option,” he said.

To get around the backcountry, Josh cut his snowboard in half lengthwise, creating two planks that resemble fat, stubby skis. When he’s ready to descend, he joins the halves back together (an after-market kit makes this possible). On the approaches, he also uses skins.

W

e began our journey on an old woods road that’s mostly flat and easy to follow. In a few places we had to skirt fallen trees. At 0.75 miles, we passed a marsh on the left and soon came to a debris field, the graveyard of trees swept off the mountain in a rainstorm that created the slide in 1995. After easily passing through this open area (over and around the debris), we started up a gully that leads to the 60-foot cliff at the slide’s base, 1.2 miles from the trailhead.

In summer, a natural rock staircase on the edge of the cliff leads to the slide proper. In winter, it fills with snow and ice and should not be climbed without crampons and an ice ax. Nevertheless, it’s the easiest route up the cliff. If you want to avoid the cliff altogether, head left into the woods. The climb is still steep, but you can grab onto trees for support.

After lashing my skis to my pack, I followed Josh up the cliff. Most of the time we were able to kick steps in the snow, but in a few places we had to stick the front points of our crampons into solid ice to gain a purchase. We also sunk our axes into the snow and ice for extra security.

On the way up, I stopped to measure the cliff angle with a Life-Link Slope Meter, which backcountry skiers sometimes carry in avalanche terrain. Most avalanches occur on slopes lying between 30 and 45 degrees.

Our route up the cliff measured 40 degrees. If the whole slide were that steep, that would be a worry, but we felt safe on this short pitch.

Once we crested the cliff, we put our planks back on and activated our avalanche beacons to transmit a rescue signal. If one of us got buried in an avalanche, the other would switch his beacon to receive mode. The receiving beacon would then emit a beep that would grow louder or fainter as the rescuer moved nearer or farther from the victim. It’s like a game of hot and cold, except it’s no game. In most cases, a buried victim will die if not found within 30 minutes.

Not that Josh and I were fearful of an avalanche. We wore the beacons mostly for practice. As we followed the zigzag skin track laid down by previous skiers, we detected no signs of instability in the snowpack — no cracking, no hollow sounds, no sloughs.

At one point, I measured the slope angle at 25 degrees, outside the high-risk zone. It seemed typical of the slide.

We did encounter two cliff bands presumably steep enough to avalanche if conditions were right. In both cases, the skin track led us to the left and up mellower terrain. When we neared the

DIRECTIONS: From the junction of Route 73 and Route 86 in Lake Placid, drive east on Route 86 for 4.3 miles to the Monument Falls pull-off on the left. The unmarked trail begins on the other side of the highway.

end of the slide, the slope steepened. This is probably the section most prone to a natural avalanche. Indeed, sliding snow had increased the depth of the snowpack considerably.

W

e stopped here to construct a Rutschblock (German for “slide block”).

With an avalanche shovel, Josh dug a wide pit, about four feet deep, down to the base of the snowpack. We then examined the snow. The top few inches were loose and fluffy. Beneath was a thick layer that was more consolidated. And under that was a thin layer of older snow, loose and granular.

The pit’s back wall formed the front of our Rutschblock. We used Josh’s snowboard to make three deep slices in the snow behind the pit, creating a square block. From the slope above, I stepped onto the rear of the block to see if it would hold up under my weight. It did, so I flexed my knees, bouncing to put extra pressure on the block. Nothing happened. I jumped a few times. Again, nothing.

Next I stepped onto the middle of the block and repeated the three tests. This time the block collapsed on the first jump. According to a Rutschblock informational card, also sold by Life-Link, our test suggested that the snowpack was fairly stable. In contrast, if the block had collapsed when I first stepped on it, that would have been evidence of a dangerous snowpack.

Afterward, we examined the pit again. It appeared that the thick layer of consolidated snow slid on the loose stuff underneath. This is not surprising, for avalanches often occur when a slab rides down slope on top of a weak layer. “If the whole slide was like this, I’d think twice,” Josh said. continued on page 33 

Josh Wilson digs a pit.

–photo by Phil Brown

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outdoors continued from page 31 After the test, we prepared for the descent. Earlier we had seen three snowshoers below, and now they caught up to us. They were impressed that we were able to climb the slide on skis and assumed that we must be expert backcountry schussers. They continued in this belief after watching Josh take off down the mountain, creating a rooster tail as he carved wide arcs in the unbroken snow.

Then it was my turn. As soon as I started downhill, I felt out of my element. I do most of my skiing on backcountry trails, powder glades, or groomed slopes.

This snow was deep and not as fluffy as I would have liked, and I had trouble linking turns. I fell once or twice before catching up to Josh. The upper cliff band had enough snow that both of us felt comfortable riding over it. The lower cliff band, has a more vertical drop. I went ahead and stopped to watch as Josh glided over the edge and into space, soaring 15 feet before landing in a white splash.

Soon we arrived at the big cliff at the foot of the slide. Josh had been thinking about snowboarding the cliff. Now he decided to go for it. He angled downward, made a sharp turn, and dropped out of sight with a loud whoop. In a few seconds he reap-

peared at the bottom and gave the thumbs-up.

“How was it?” I shouted.

“All the snow sloughed off the bottom part.”

“Is it skiable?”

“Not anymore.”

“Thanks a lot.”

Not wanting to down-climb, I followed Josh’s tracks to the middle of the cliff, where he had made his turn, and then continued to angle downward to an icy lip maybe 20 feet from the base. Josh suggested a jump turn, but I wasn’t sure I could pull that off, partly because my stance was precarious.

Instead, I edged forward over the lip, and as I did so, my footing and the snow gave way. I slid 10 or 15 feet, coming to rest in a pile of powder. If only all avalanches were that much fun.

On the way out, I mulled over why I had so much trouble skiing the slide. I concluded that I had not been bold enough. I should have been facing the fall line and aggressively unweighting my skis during turns. But it’s hard to be aggressive when you feel intimidated by unfamiliar conditions. I have a lot to learn, but that’s OK. The Kilburn Slide is a great classroom.

E

— photo by josh wilson

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off the beaten path

Cleveland Rocks! and is so much more than the rock and roll hall of fame

by kathleen norton

I

f Cleveland hasn’t been on your bucket list of must-see locations, you should reconsider that thought — and notjust because it is home to the best collection of rock music memorabilia anywhere.

Everyone knows the city houses the larger-than-life Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But Cleveland also hosts the Christmas Story house, a fantastic zoo, an impressive parks system, cultural events, a professional football team, and upscale hotels and eateries in a revitalized city tourism district. And, if you’re more a sports fan than a rock fan, the city is about an hour’s drive from the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

We made a point of stopping to explore Cleveland during a driving trip to Chicago, and we’re glad we did. Cleveland offers fine dining, culture, shopping, sporting events, gaming, a long list of brewpubs, nearby outdoors recreation and just plain fun in any number of neighborhoods, including University Circle, East 4th Street, West Side Market, the Gateway District, Coventry and Asiatown, just to name a few.

During our visit to Rock Hall, as Cleveland-ites call it, we saw plenty of visitors with gray hair, as many young adults who were born long after Elvis left the planet, and throngs of “tweens” on school trips toting backpacks. And they all had one trait in common: They were having a rockin’ good time at this worldclass exhibit, just blocks from a host of large hotels and within walking distance from some other great tourism attractions such as the Great Lakes Science Center and the Cleveland Browns football stadium. Comedian Drew Carey was on the

34 explore

Rock and roll Hall of Fame and Museum — photo courtesy Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

money with a theme song for his sitcom that proclaimed “Cleveland rocks!’’

Rock Hall is unlike any other museum you’ve ever visited and, like my husband and me on our trip, you’ll find yourself planning another visit to make sure you didn’t miss anything in the seven levels housed in a unique, geometric, glass structure. That’s right. Seven levels of iconic collections that trace the roots of rock, honor its latest stars and pay homage to the social significance of the genre.

The extent of the exhibits of costumes, instruments and memorabilia housed in one place can’t be overstated or exaggerated. Example: You’d expect to see Elvis’ famous white jumpsuit in all its glory. What you wouldn’t expect to see is a fading copy of his Graceland mortgage. Or his helmet from a football team he organized with friends at Graceland because his mom never let him play as a kid.

Other featured collections include a cross-section of performers, including Metallica, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson and the Who. As you walk through each level, you’ll see monitors that replay old performance footage, but my favorite may have been the video loop that featured clips of mid-20th-century public figures, preachers and others deriding rock as the devil’s handiwork — a nice ironic twist in this classy monument to the genre that put an indelible stamp on the world of music.

The 150,000-square-foot facility features five theaters hosting short films, performances, educational programs, special events and constantly changing special exhibits, such as the two-floor Women Who Rock exhibit that was in

’n’ roll’’ and hosted what’s called the first rock concert — the Moondog Coronation Ball — on March 21, 1952, at the Cleveland arena.

Nor is the inside of Rock Hall its only impressive part.

Designed by I.M Pei, arguably the world’s most famous architect, the hall features bold geometric form and cantilevered spaces that are anchored by a tower that supports a dual-triangular shaped tent, which extends onto a 65-thousand square foot plaza, creating a dramatic entry way.

B

ut Cleveland is about more than rock ‘n’ roll. You might want to start at the Gateway District, and consider it the city’s hospitality zone because it houses five hotels, more than 60 restaurants and stores, two MOCA Cleveland major sports arenas and the funky and fun East 4th — photo courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland Street neighborhood. You can dine at Lola, home of Iron Chef Michael Symon, visit the Baseball Heritage Museum, shop ’til you drop at the many stores throughout the area, or roll the dice at Horseshoe Casino.

At University Circle, you’ll find the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, which recently opened an impressive 34,000-square foot building designed by architect Farshid Moussavi, a member of a team that was a finalist in the Ground Zero competition. The MOCA Cleveland and University Circle, a cosmopolitan area, are just four miles from the downtown. Besides cultural institutions, the area offers hip boutique hotels and shops as well as historic 19th century mansions and carriage houses. University Circle is well worth the trip along the new Euclid Corridor.

The West Side Market is a colorful indoor/outdoor market with ethnic flair in the neighborhood of Ohio City. But come hungry because 180 vendors offer a huge variety of produce, meats, baked goods and ethnic specialties. After a day at West Side Market, you might crave some nightlife and you can find it on East 4th PRo Football Hall of Fame Street, where a lively mix of music, comedy, dining and — AP photo/The Repository, Scott Heckel even bowling can be found.

Two other areas worth exploring are Coventry and AsiaTown. Coventry, once known as Cleveland’s hippie place during our visit. The exhibit highlighted 60 of the firsts, bests, famous neighborhood, offers a great mix of shops, eateries and live music venues and and lesser-known women who made contributions to American culture and the it maintains that offbeat vibe. AsiaTown has a long history in Cleveland, and rock music genre. today it continues to offer Asian cuisine, shopping and culture.

Currently, Rock Hall has a special exhibit dedicated to the Grateful Dead, on In fairer weather, outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy biking, walking, jogging and display into December. Earlier this year, the museum’s library and archives colfishing excursions. You may hear people refer to the “Emerald Necklace,’’ a nicklections, a project that has been years in the making, opened about two miles namefor the extensive series of nature preserves that encircle the city. The netaway in a 22,500-square foot building on the campus of Cuyahoga Community work of parks spans over 21,000 acres and includes hundreds of miles of walking, College’s Metropolitan Campus. bicycle, and horse trails. Numerous picnic areas, fishing spots, golf courses and As you walk through Rock Hall, you may be asking yourself, as I did, how’d a zoo are part of the system.

Cleveland get so lucky? I learned that luck had little to do with it — and rock history had everything. Cleveland Deejay Alan Freed popularized the term “rock continued on page 37 

timesunion.com/explore 35

Teri Greeves, My Family’s Tennis Shoes Series, 2003, collection of School for Advanced Research, photo by Addison Doty

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off the beaten path A Christmas Story House — photo courtesy A Christmas Story House & Museum, Nick J. Cool

continued from page 35 Among the events, venues and locations in or near the city are the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Art Museum, the Cleveland National Air Show, Cleveland Beer Week, Bridgestone World Golf Championship in Akron, the Cleveland Marathon, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the NASA Glenn Research Center.

And let’s not forget Cleveland’s contribution to world of movie trivia: the house of Ralphie Parker, the all-American boy featured in Gene Shepherd’s holiday classic, A Christmas Story, which, though the story takes place in Indiana, was shot in Cleveland. Each year, a cadre of fans gathers for a convention and to troupe through the Christmas Story house used in Gene Shepherd’s nostalgic tale of all-American boy Ralphie Parker. The house has been restored, and has a museum and gift shop on the site E

if you go...

What to Do Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., Cleveland (216) 781-7625 rockhall.com Complex features 150,000 squarefoot museum on seven floors, four theaters for films, special events and free public programs.

Cleveland Browns Stadium

acres and includes hundreds of miles of walking, bicycle, and horse trails.

Numerous picnic areas, fishing spots, golf courses and a zoo are part of the system.

Renaissance Cleveland

Pro Football Hall of Fame

Westin Cleveland Convention Center Hotel

2121 George Halas Drive Northwest Canton, Ohio (330) 456-8827 profootballhof.com Features more than 80,000 square feet of exhibits.

Where to Eat

24 Public Square, Cleveland (216) 696-5600 marriott.com

The Greenhouse Tavern

2038 E Fourth St., Cleveland (216) 443-0511 thegreenhousetavern.com Contemporary, farm-to-table dining

777 St. Clair Avenue, Cleveland (303) 405-8393 westincleveland.com

Sushi Rock

1276 W. Sixth St., Cleveland (216) 623-1212 sushirockohio.com Contemporary, Japanese/sushi

Brownstone Inn Downtown

3649 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland (216) 246-1753 brownstoneinndowntown.com

100 Alfred Lerner Way, Cleveland (440) 824-3434 clevelandbrowns.com Located on the shores of Lake Erie, near Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Great Lakes Science Center, this site has served as home to the Browns football team since 1946.

A Christmas Story House and Museum

3159 W 11th St., Cleveland (216) 298-4919 achristmasstoryhouse.com House is restored as it appeared in the 1983 movie.

DoubleTree by Hilton Cleveland Downtown – Lakeside

Great Lakes Science Center

Where to Stay

Water’s Edge Retreat (B&B)

601 Erieside Ave., Cleveland (216) 694-2000 glsc.org Offers more than 340 interactive science exhibits and a six-story Omnimax theater.

Emerald Necklace

clemetparks.com Cleveland Metroparks is an extensive system of nature preserves that encircle the city of Cleveland, referred to unofficially as the “Emerald Necklace.”

The network of parks spans over 21,000

The Ritz-Carlton Cleveland

1515 W 3rd St., Cleveland (216) 623-1300 ritzcarlton.com Cleveland Marriott

Downtown at Key Center 126 Public Square, Cleveland (216) 696-9200 marriott.com

111 Lakeside Avenue, Cleveland (216) 241-5100 doubletree3.hilton.com 827 E. Lakeshore Drive, Cleveland Kelleys Island, Ohio (419) 746-2333 watersedgeretreat.com Stone Gables (B&B)

3806 Franklin Boulevard, Cleveland (877) 215-4326 stonegables.net

The Flying Fig

2523 Market Ave., Cleveland (216) 241-4243 theflyingfig.com Casual eatery and bar Accent

11460 Uptown Ave., Cleveland (216) 721.8477 accentcleveland.com Pan-Asian cuisine 4th Street Bar & Grill

402 Euclid Ave., Cleveland (216) 298-4070 4thstreetbarandgrill.com Contemporary Americana Blue Pointe Grill

700 West St. Clair Ave., Cleveland 216-875-STAR (7827) hrcleveland.com Seafood

timesunion.com/explore 37

just the two of us

Going to the Country the finger lakes offer history, old books and great coffee — to say nothing of the wine by claire duffett

T

wo million years ago, a glacier retreated south through what is now Central New York, clawing out 11 deep trenches. This violent ecological event contrasts with the picturesque landscape and pristine, freshwater lakes it left behind. Forests of dense red maple, cedar, elm, oak and sycamore surround the parallel strips of water and cover the rolling hills and valleys of the Finger Lakes. Hidden among them are villages, waterfalls, parks and some of the East Coast’s best wineries that provide a serene respite for a weekend getaway.

Three hours west of Albany along Rte. 90, you arrive first at lakes Otisco and Skaneateles. The self-proclaimed “eastern gateway of the Finger Lakes,” Skaneateles is a great starting point for a tour of the region. The smallest of the historic lakeside towns, it

Rochester

E FINGER LAK

Conesus Lake

Hemlock Lake

Seneca Falls

Canadaigua Lake Seneca Lake

Honeoye Lake

S

Syracuse Skaneateles Lake

Cayuga Lake

Otisco Lake

Owasco Lake

Canadice Lake MAP AREA

Keuka Lake

Watkins Glen

38 explore

Ithaca

RAVINES WINE CELLARS’ RIESLINGS, from the Finger Lakes.

— Photo by Nathaniel Brooks/The New York Times

boasts the Sherwood Inn, one of the region’s best-known restaurants and hotels. A stagecoach magnate built the estate in 1807.

The nearby Mirbeau Inn & Spa is the aesthetic opposite: an opulent-yet-understated resort where downstaters retreat for expedited recuperation from city life. A shop called Imagine, set on the village’s main, Victorian-façade-lined drag, sells jewelry, watches, stained glass and even handmade guitars created by regional artists.

Next as you head westward are lakes Owasco and Cayuga. At the northern tip of Cayuga is Seneca Falls, famous for its role in the women’s suffrage movement. In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her contemporaries convened there to sign a declaration

demanding the vote. Though the tiny hamlet has few dining and accommodation options, it is still worth stopping in town to tour the Women’s Rights National Historic Park before indulging in tastings along the trail of wineries and dining at the cultural hub of Ithaca to the south. Guides offer free daily tours through Stanton’s home and the Wesleyan chapel where Stanton and contemporary rights activists such as Frederick Douglass first convened.

At the southernmost point of Cayuga is Ithaca, a haven for the young, urban professional but with enough small-town, rustbelt grit to keep it feeling down-to-earth. Ithaca Beer Co. occupies one of those post-industrial enclaves on Elmira Rd. near Buttermilk Falls.

It is one of the best microbreweries in the area, with excellent pale and brown ales. It is also good place to stock up for all the BYOB restaurants in town, while paying a visit to its taproom and taking a tour of the brewery.

Back in town, antique and used-book hunting through the trove of shops and library graveyards throughout Ithaca Commons yields treasures for pennies. The best by far is Autumn Leaves. Dim lighting and dusty, crowded shelves and the kitsch-laden record store in the basement contrast the stellar coffee shop and reading area in the rear. The dining hub along the “Restaurant Row” on Aurora Street between Seneca and State streets is a good starting place to browse for dinner, but some of the standouts of the area’s many downtown haunts include Moosewood, or “the vegetarian mecca” as a Cornell Ph.D. student friend once described it. Madeline’s has fantastic desserts and Just a Taste has the best tapas in town as well as a seemingly infinite wine list. Bandwagon and NorthStar pubs have lively atmospheres, a dizzying beer selection and locally sourced but sufficiently greasy bar food. Gimme! Coffee is in Ithaca-based chain that fosters fierce loyalty among locals and now successfully competes in the most cutthroat café climate in the U.S., with two locations in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan.

The Inn on Columbia is the perfect temporary home for a night in Ithaca. Set on a tree-lined street up the hill from the main town, the inn is, fittingly, owned by a local architect, Ken. He updated the charming, early-19th century home, adding to it amenities like skylights and whirlpool tubs. A friendly, fluffy brown dog named Sophia rounds out the cozy atmosphere.

Outside town is Taughannock Falls as you head northwest toward Seneca Lake.

It is a 215 ft. stream that topples into one of Ithaca’s famed gorges. Many others dot the Cornell campus, linked together by suspension bridges. Amid the caverns are various grandiose, Collegiate Gothic-style buildings, the modern, cubist I.M. Pei designed art museum stands out among all the towers and flying buttresses.

It sits atop a 1,000-foot hill and looks more like an observatory, with an elevated level of wraparound windows for marveling at the green hills from above.

Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/Neustockimages.

continued on page 40 

TRYING OUT THE BEER at Ithaca Beer Co. — AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli

· call 518- 454-5358

it pays to advertise

just the two of us continued from page 39

F

LOOKING TOWARD SENECA LAKE down rows of grapes in the vineyard, at Chateau LaFayette Reneau Winery.

— Photo by Richard Lovrich/ Times Union Archive

ALONG THE TRAIL at Watkins Glen State Park — AP photo/Ann Levin

urther afield are troves of Cayuga wineries. Most establishments follow the same protocol: five tastings for $2.50, with a complimentary wine glass. A few are mediocre, most are great, and the area rivals anything else in the U.S. east of Napa Valley. Among those that stand out for their settings and wine quality is Sheldrake Point. It is a bit hidden from the main road and houses a bistro, Simply Red Café, to offset a day of tastings. Wines pair nicely with the cheese plates, entrees and the must-try “slow ass” molasses spike cake.

Seneca Lake is 10 miles west, and another college town buttresses its northernmost point. Geneva is home to Hobart & William Smith College and is quieter than Ithaca, but with many of the same charms: a shimmering lake, greenery and historic old buildings with a colonial, academic feel. Of the many restaurants in town, the standouts include Red Dove Tavern, a cozy, locavore bistro with a rotating menu of seasonal small plates and a killer Saturday brunch; Ports Café, a lake-view, white tablecloth affair with great seafood; and The Belhurst, a hotel and restaurant inside a lakeside castle that dwarfs the other mansions in the area.

Seneca Lake offers so many great wineries that it feels disingenuous to recommend just one — find your favorite by exploring is the best way to taste a range of wines and meet local characters. One standout is Miles Wine Cellars with lovely owners, Doug and Suzie. There is an adjacent inn, stunning lake views, and a restaurant focused on homemade soups and appetizers. Pair your meal with a fantastic white blend called “Ghost,” named after the dancing lovers that

if you go…

Visit Here Women’s Rights National Historical Park

136 Fall St., Seneca Falls nps.gov/wori Open daily, 9 am to 5 pm, except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Corning Museum of Glass

1 Museum Way, Corning 607-937-5371cmog.org Take glass- or ornamentmaking classes and see exhibits of interesting glassware.

Herbert M. Johnson Museum of Art - Cornell University

114 Central Ave., Ithaca 607-255-6464 museum.cornell.edu Open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Closed Monday.

Taughannock Falls State Park

2221 Taughannock Rd., Trumansburg 607-387-6739 nysparks.com/parks/62

Watkins Glen State Park

3530 New York 14, Watkins Glen (607) 535-4511 nysparks.com/parks/142 Loads of waterfalls and an overall gorgeous park. Great for hiking and seeing nature.

Where to Stay Sherwood Inn

26 W. Genesee St., Skaneateles 315-685-3405 · thesherwoodinn.com Mirbeau Inn & Spa

851 W. Genesee St., Skaneateles 877-647-2328 · mirbeau.com Inn on Columbia

22 Columbia St., Ithaca 228-272-0204 columbiabb.com Morgan Samuels Inn

2920 Smith Road, Canandaigua 585-394-9232 morgansamuelsinn.com

allegedly haunt this Greek revival mansion.

The Y-shaped Keuka Lake, just southwest of Seneca, is a personal favorite, for its quiet beauty and the camping and wineries that line it, even though its largest hamlets, Penn Yan and Dundee, are much smaller than the other lakeside towns. Along Keuka, the standout wineries include Rooster Hill and Dr. Frank’s, opened by a Ukrainian immigrant in 1962, and the region’s most awarded winery.

Canandaigua Lake is next, with the town of the same name at the tip of its northernmost bank. The New York Wine and Culinary Center should be the first stop. It is much more than its generic-sounding “visitor’s center” title. While the tastings pale in comparison to the wineries nearby, the restaurant has a great, locally sourced menu and views of the lake. The Morgan Samuels Inn downtown, named after the famous playwright-actor Judson Morgan who built the mansion in 1810, has manicured gardens befitting Downton Abbey and rooms ranging in size and price range from servants quarters to opulent suites.

Lakes Honeoye, Canadice, Hemlock and Conesus are the minor lakes to the west. None is longer than eight miles. The wine trails taper out here, as does the geological hand that created New York’s wine country and its teardrop-strewn landscape. Though looping back through the back roads that wind around the lakes and you can experience another equally stellar set of wineries, restaurants and inns, soaking in the views while your new collection of wine glasses clang together in the back seat.

E

9749 Middle Rd., Hammondsport 607-868-4884 drfrankwines.ewinerysolutions.com

have wineries and the wine is just as good, but on Seneca, they are closest together, allowing for an entire day of driving (get a designated driver) and tasting wine. As a side note, Dr. Frank’s, which is located on Keuka Lake, just won the Governor’s Cup, for best wine in New York State, and was named Winery of the Year for the entire state.

New York Wine & Culinary Center

Bandwagon Brew Pub

The Belhurst

Rooster Hill Vineyards

4069 Rte. 14 South, Geneva 315-781-0201 belhurst.com

489 Rte. 54 South, Penn Yan 315-536-4773 roosterhill.ewinerysolutions.com

Eat/Drink Here

Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinefera Wine Cellars

Sheldrake Point Winery

7448 Country Road, Ovid 607-532-9401 · sheldrakepoint.com Finger Lakes Distilling

4676 New York 414, Burdett (607) 546-5510 fingerlakesdistilling.com Finger Lakes Cheese Trail

flcheesetrail.com This newly formed collaboration of 15 farms is a great complement to the wine — and it’s good to keep the DD happy and well fed from time to time.

Ruby Conical Intersection with Amber Sphere, by Harvey K. Littleton, at the Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning. — Photo courtesy corning museum

800 South Main Street, Canandaigua 585-394-7070 · nywcc.com Ithaca Beer Co.

Elmira Road, Ithaca 607-273-0766 · ithacabeer.com Madeline’s

215 E. State St., Ithaca 607-277-2253 madelines-restaurant.com

114 N. Cayuga St., Ithaca 607-319-0699 bandwagonbeer.com NorthStar Pub

202 East Falls St., Ithaca 607-216-8580 northstarpub.com Gimme! Coffee

Red Newt Bistro

Just a Taste

3675 Tichenor Road, Hector 607-546-4100 · rednewt.com Locally sourced menu.

116 North Aurora St., Ithaca 607-277-9463 · just-a-taste.com

Various Ithaca locations, including: 430 N Cayuga St., 607-277-8393 506 W. State St., 607-272-8564 131 E. Green St., 607-882-9515 gimmecoffee.com

Seneca Lake Wine Trail

Miles Wine Cellars

877-536-2717 · senecalakewine.com Easiest lake to get to and as many wineries as possible in the shortest amount of time. The other lakes

The Red Dove Tavern

168 Randall Road, Himrod 607-243-7742 mileswinecellars.com

30 Castle St., Geneva 315-781-2020 reddovetavern.com

Ports Café

4432 W. Lake Rd., Geneva 315-789-2020 portscafe.com

Shop Here Imagine

38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles 315-685-6263 imagineskaneateles.com Autumn Leaves Used Bookstore/Angry Mom Records

115 State St., Ithaca 607-319-4953 angrymomrecords.com Geneva Antique Co-op

473-475 Exchange St., Geneva 315-789-5100 geneva-antique-coop.com

More Info Cayuga Wine Trail

607-869-4281 cayugawinetrail.com FingerLakes.com

A guide to the entire Finger Lakes region.

timesunion.com/explore 41

last call pearances, off-hours trouble shooting, and officiating at weddings means downtime is rare, but he takes a break in March or April, before the summer onslaught. “You don’t have weekends to yourself when you’re the mayor of Lake George,” Blais laughs. “Pawleys Island has become one of my favorite places to recharge because it has lots of peace and quiet. It’s only 12 miles south of Myrtle Beach and about 90 minutes from Charleston. I love walking near the water looking for sand dollars or seeing porpoises swim by.”

This spring, Blais says he’s looking forward to more porpoise sightings from the beach home he rents, as well as a few relaxed rounds of golf and shopping with the grandkids at Myrtle Beach. But just as important as the getaway for downtime is the return to the mayor’s desk at village hall. “It’s never been a job to me,” says Blais. “It’s a pleasure to go to work and feel you’re doing something to make a lot of people happy.”

E

Best Place For …

A Cornucopia of Seafood

Robert Blais:

why i love pawleys island by stacey morris » photo by colleen ingerto

W

hen Robert M. Blais became the Lake George Village mayor in 1971, he had no idea the four-year term would flourish into a decadeslong relationship that continues today. When he began as mayor, tourism in the village was confined to the summer season, and commerce along Canada Street was mostly mom-and-pop motels, souvenir shops, and restaurants serving burgers or Italian fare. Brooklyn-style slices of pizza and T-shirts bearing the village name are still part of the landscape, but nowadays it’s as easy to get a gyro platter or chicken vindaloo as it is an order of lasagna bolognese. National hotel chains moved in and so did a more extended tourism season.

As the tiny lakeside village has evolved over the decades, Blais has helped steer the passage through triumphs and a few growing pains. When he implemented fall events such as the Lake George Elvis Festival and Moonglow, the flow of visitors no longer stopped in its tracks after Labor Day. Other changes he’s proud of include the Lake George Visitors Center at the corner of Canada Street and Beach Road, and the Lake George Lakefront Walkway and Park, which stretches around the southern tip of the lake from Million Dollar Beach to Shepard Park.

Some might wonder why Blais willingly steps up to the plate, term after term, to take on a job in a village where the population swells to nearly 10 times its 1,000-resident size during peak months. He says the answer is simple: Blais loves Lake George. “It’s not a headache and it never has been. I’ve always felt being mayor is an honor,” he says. “When I visit other parts of the country, people tell me about the good times they’ve had in Lake George.”

The mayoral duty list of board meetings, mountains of paperwork, public ap-

42 explore

Murrells Inlet, S.C. murrellsinletsc.com “They claim to be the fishing capital of the world,” says Blais. “Murrells Inlet has a ‘gold coast’ of one seafood restaurant after another, plus seafood markets. There’s a shorewalk along the waterway connecting all the restaurants. It’s nice because there are marshes and you can see peacocks and other wildlife in front of the restaurants.”

Authentic Hush Puppies

Drunken Jack’s Restaurant 4031 Highway 17, Murrells Inlet (843) 651-2044 · drunkenjacks.com “It’s a big, huge seafood restaurant and very popular,” says Blais. “We always make at least one trip there.

The hush puppies are excellent.”

Blues and Seafood

Pawleys Island Tavern (PIT) 10635 Ocean Highway, Pawleys Island (843) 237-8465 · pawleysislandtavern.com “This place is a real enigma and located behind a small shopping plaza in the woods. There’s no sign, just a pink mailbox on the road that says ‘PIT’ on it,” he says. “The outdoor stage is surrounded by picnic tables with live music every night. The place is always packed and the food is good.

I like the fish ’n’ chips in a basket.”

Heavenly BBQ

Hog’s Heaven 7147 Ocean Highway, Pawleys Island (843) 237-7444 · hogheaveninc.com “It’s in a converted trailer with a picnic area outside,” says Blais. “The place is run by a family and they smoke suckling pigs, ribs, and chicken in an outdoor pit.

The food is great and it’s inexpensive.”

Filet Mignon with Atmosphere

Frank’s Restaurant & Bar 10434 Ocean Highway, Pawleys Island (843) 237-3030 · franksandoutback.com “I love dining in their tent out back because it’s decorated with foliage and garden lights,” he says. “It’s the number one restaurant for a special night out.

My daughters Jacalyn and Jenny love the Filet Mignon with Bearnaise sauce.”

Outdoor Therapy

Huntington Beach State Park 16148 Ocean Highway, Murrells Inlet (843) 237-4440 · huntingtonbeachsc.org “You can rent canoes and kayaks here. There are marshlands and all kinds of wildlife,” says Blais. “And the nearby Brookgreen Gardens are beautiful and one of the largest sculpture gardens in the world.”

Glitz and Glitter

Broadway at the Beach 1325 Celebrity Circle, Myrtle Beach (843) 444-3200 · broadwayatthebeach.com “There’s everything from Planet Hollywood to a NASCAR speed park, plus lots of restaurants and shopping,” says Blais. “We always try to make the Cirque du Soleil and Legends, a live show of impersonators from Vegas.”

Brew and Entertainment

The Bowery 110 9th Avenue North, Myrtle Beach (843) 626-3445 · thebowery.com Blais says the downtown bar is known for turning serving mugs of beer into entertainment. “The waitresses compete nightly for who can hold the most mugs of beer in their hands,” he says. “The record is 14.”

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