Spring Issue 2018
Van Wyck Gazette
Fishkill • Beacon • Wappingers Falls • Poughkeepsie • Newburgh • New Paltz • Rhinebeck • Woodstock
Van Wyck Gazette
FROM THE PUBLISHER
EDITOR IN CHIEF / CREATIVE DIRECTOR Joseph Caplan DESIGN / MEDIA Margot Stiegeler CONTRIBUTORS Noel Chrisjohn Benson, Ami Madeleine Daichman, Samara Ferris, Adrea Gibbs, Mike Jurkovic, Rik Mercaldi, Isabel Minunni, Robert Pucci PUBLISHER Caplan Media Group, Inc., Fishkill, NY
Table of Contents
3 David Lindley Rik Mercaldi
6 In the Limelight: Kyle Miller Ami Madeleine Daichman
8 The Local Auction Scene Robert Pucci
12 I Never Wanted to Feel Like I Had a Job
Mike Jurkovic
16 The Artwork of Mike DuBois
Noel Chrisjohn Benson
19 Easy Grilled Eggplant Tacos
Isabel Minunni
20 The State of the Marijuana State
Samara Ferris
23 The Words of Winter
Adrea Gibbs
AWF - ANB - APK - AKN - VIS - BLS - NAT - TCC - AWL - SHW - SHM - MSF - MGR MHF - MHH - QU
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Professor Robert Pucci explores the local auction scene with his interviews of George Cole, Dom Navarro and Neil Vaughn. Ami Madeleine Daichman is both a promoter and musician and shares her edgy interview of Kyle Miller. Noel Chrisjohn Benson explains the road to creating iconic album art with his interview of Mike DuBois from HappyLife Productions in Woodstock.
Samara Ferris narrates the case to legalize marijuana and refers to Colorado to make her point.
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Rik Mercaldi is a musician and shares his extensive review of guitar virtuoso David Lindley, soon to appear at Daryl’s House Club.
Mike Jurkovic amazes with his interview of “Nub” known formerly as the extraordinary artist from Orange County Choppers on the Discovery Network.
SUBSCRIPTIONS To receive Van Wyck Gazette by mail visit our website and subscribe www.vanwyckgazette.com
I am thrilled to present our Spring Issue which introduces several new writers to our group of talented contributors.
Adrea Gibbs humors everyone with her symantic review of wintry words in a farewell to snow. Isabel Minunni grills up her delightful eggplant taco recipe. Van Wyck Gazette is provided at fine stores, places of local interest, art/entertainment venues, public libraries, music festivals and charitable events from Beacon to Rhinebeck and from Newburgh to Woodstock. A word appreciation to both our loyal advertiser base and group of contributors. Upcoming this summer is our 30th issue, “The Best of Van Wyck Gazette - Volume II”
Joseph Caplan COVER ARTIST For 16 years Susan Slotnick has gone behind the walls at Woodbourne Correctional Prison to bring the joys of dance to incarcerated men. Her choreography has dealt with serious themes geared to inspire audiences and students toward social justice activism. Feature articles about her have appeared in Dance, Dance Teacher and Dance Studio Magazine. In 2014 she received the “Caring Heart Award” from Dance Studio Magazine. In 2010 Ms. Slotnick was featured in Huffington Post as the “Greatest Woman of the Day” during Women’s History Month. Ms. Slotnick is also a painter. She has exhibited in many local venues. Currently she is a member of Roost Studio, including the Mark Gruber Gallery and Unison. Since 1988 she has been a columnist for The New Paltz Times. A documentary about her entitled “The Game Changer” was accepted at Cannes Film Festival where it won first prize for a short film. In 2016 she received the “Justice Through The Arts” Award from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. She is currently writing a memoir. Cover art painting by Susan Slotnick Van W yck Gazette - Spring 2018 Issue
David Lindley
Rik Mercaldi I had been playing the guitar pretty seriously for several years when I first became aware of David Lindley. Jackson Browne’s song “Running On Empty” had been a regular staple on FM radio for several years, but as I listened one day, it suddenly hit me like a slap in the face. The weeping, melodic swells of the instrument that punctuated the lyrics were almost trancelike. I’d heard plenty of slide guitar before, but this was something else entirely. Who was this, and how is he getting that sound? After researching, I discovered that it was David Lindley playing lap steel guitar. Shortly afterwards, I mentioned Lindley to a fellow guitar player, and his immediate reaction was, “You gotta check this out!”. He pulled out a record with a guy on the cover who looked like he had just woken up (and what was he wearing?!) The album was David Lindley’s first by his band El Rayo-X. As my friend delicately dropped the needle on a carefully selected spot on the record, the menacing slide guitar of “Mercury Blues” began, it gradually built up with a smoldering intensity until the solo erupted. After I picked my jaw off of the floor, my quest began to find anything that Lindley had played on. David Lindley was born on March 21st, 1944 in San Marino, California, located in the San Rafael Hills of Los Angeles County. As a teenager growing up in Southern California, he learned to play the banjo as well as the fiddle. By the time he had reached his late teens he had won the Topanga Banjo-Fiddle Contest five times! Other notable contestants at this prestigious festival included Taj Mahal, Steve Martin and Jackson Browne.
In 1966 Lindley helped form the band Kaleidoscope, a groundbreaking psychedelic band whose members were all multiinstrumentalists. By incorporating musical influences from around the globe, and playing a wide selection of exotic instruments in a variety of musical styles, Kaleidoscope produced a kind of World Music years before the term became common. The band was signed to Epic Records and released four albums on which Lindley played the guitar, banjo, mandolin, and fiddle. Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page called Kaleidoscope his “favorite band of all time.” During their high point, the band played the Newport Folk Festival and supported Cream on their farewell American tour. Unfortunately, critical accolades couldn’t make up for disappointing record sales, and the band broke up in 1970. After Kaleidoscope went their separate ways, Lindley went to England where he joined singer/guitarist Terry Reid, performing shows around the UK, including the Glastonbury and Isle Of Wight Festivals. His distinctively fluid slide and fiddle playing from this period can be heard on “Silver White Light: Live at The Isle Of Wight 1970”, and on Reid’s critically acclaimed “River” album. Lindley’s intoxicatingly liquid lap steel leaps to the fore right from the album’s opening track “Dean”, snaking in and around Reid’s soulful crooning. While Reid’s band had relocated to the US to continue recording tracks for this album, his drummer Alan White left to join Yes, and Lindley left to tour with Jackson Browne who had recently scored his first hit single “Doctor My Eyes”. This would be the start of a long and fruitful collaboration that would see Lindley become an essential ingredient to Jackson Browne’s Page 3
This Record” along with the previously mentioned debut, are particular highlights for me) he disbanded El Rayo-X, and continued to release new music, tour as a solo artist, and play in a duo, first with percussionist Hani Naser, and then with Wally Ingram. The series of “Twango Bango” albums he released with Ingram are particularly noteworthy. In the ‘90’s he collaborated on several instrumental albums with guitarist/composer Henry Kaiser, and in 2007 worked with him again on the hypnotically ethereal soundtrack to Werner Herzog’s award-winning documentary film, “Encounters At The End Of The World”. His session work has continued into the 2000’s with artists such as Bruce Springsteen and Rickie Lee Jones, as well as collaborative efforts such as 2006’s “Both Sides Of The Gun” with Ben Harper. He also reunited with Jackson Browne on “Love Is Strange: En Vivi Con Tino” in 2008. David Lindley continues to explore the wide range of sounds that can be coaxed out of exotic, rare, and unusual instruments from around the globe, such as Irish & Greek bouzoukis, Middle Eastern oud, Turkish saz, and Kona and Weissenborn Hawaiian lap steel guitars, to name a few. He’s been collecting instruments since the 1960’s and claims to not have any idea how many he actually owns! He still tours regularly as a solo artist, performing an eclectic range of music, while choosing to market and sell his music himself, independent of record labels. Having seen him live several times over the years in a multitude of configurations, his embrace of styles, trademark high tenor singing voice, talent for vocal mimicry, witty humor, and enjoyable stage banter, continue to entertain and inspire. His influence on my own musical journey has been profound, to say the least. I now play (or at least dabble) on mandolin, sitar, and, of course lap steel guitar. When I was looking for a double neck model lap steel for a band that I was recently playing in, I scored a cool (and cheap!) white Supro from 1959, on eBay. I came across a live video on YouTube of El Rayo-X playing “Mercury Blues” live in 1981, and, much to my surprise, Lindley was playing a double neck, white Supro steel that looked remarkably similar to mine. I’ll resist the urge to attach a mystical explanation to this fortuitous moment, but maybe it’s time for me to sit down and learn that song.
sound, adding his distinct lap steel, guitar and fiddle playing to his records and live shows through 1980. Throughout his time with Browne, Lindley was also a member of Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor’s touring bands, as well as Crosby-Nash. He became a sought-after session musician whose staggering list of clients include: Leonard Cohen, The Youngbloods, Warren Zevon, Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Joe Walsh, The Bangles, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Ry Cooder, Iggy Pop, and several albums with the members of Crosby, Stills and Nash, individually and collectively. In addition to all of his session and touring work with other artists, Lindley kicked off a solo career with his band El Rayo-X. Their music, a unique gumbo of influences ranging from Buddy Holly covers to Reggae versions of Soul classics, were all underlined with Lindley’s distinctive and tastefully delivered playing and singing. After several albums (“Win Page 4
David Lindley will be appearing at Daryl’s House in Pawling, NY on Thursday, April 12th at 8:00pm, I will, of course, be there.
V an W yck Gazette - Spring 2018 Issue
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In the Limelight: Kyle Miller Interviews with Local Musicians and Artists of the Hudson Valley Ami Madeleine Daichman orchestra. It’s something no one does anymore and people partially don’t because it sounds hokey or dated. It’s fresh now because no one does it. VAN WYCK GAZETTE: What’s important to you right now in terms of making music? KYLE MILLER: Production and recording. Almost all my favorite classic bands were studio bands: The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Electric Light Orchestra, etc. The producer was in the band (George Martin practically was). I’m not opposed to the exposure or being paid to play, and booking nicer listening venues would be ideal, but I don’t want to go on tour playing dives and coffee shops where no one wants to hear me just to say I went on a tour. I just want to keep making albums and if someone notices, great. If not, that’s fine. Recording is the most important part for me. VWG: Tell us about Little Nothing, your debut album you released last year. KM: I recorded Little Nothing with Lee Falco, Brandon Morrison and Lee Bryant of The Building Records in Marlboro, NY. After we released the record on May 1st, they went on tour with Donald Fagan from Steely Dan and were his backing band as “The Nightflyers”. They also toured with guitarist Connor Kennedy and multi-instrumentalist Zach Djanikian. I was so satisfied with the way it came out. I’ve actually been putting my album on when I’m with other people- they have to know it exists. I’m looking towards the next record though. We’ll record this year and release another record that will include a vinyl pressing. VWG: Was there a theme for Little Nothing? What’s the inspiration for the new record? KM: Not precisely a theme. Little Nothing had a lot to do with heartbreak whereas this new one is somewhat fictional. My approach it a little different. It’s not so much about my life and more about chord progressions and melody rather than content..more about the musicality. I’m not trying to make a record I can recreate live. It’s freeing in a way. So for the next record my only goal is to have strings. Layer two or three tracks like an Page 6
VWG: How’s it been working with a band? Do you prefer performing solo? KM: Solo is easiest to book and practice for. I’m thankful I’m comfortable with playing solo because not everyone wants to or is comfortable doing. It’s more intimate and vulnerable. There’s nothing like playing with a band though. “Fade Away” from the record is the only song I’ve ever played in front of people where I don’t have an instrument in my hands. It’s the best feeling. To just stand there and sing is amazing. I don’t have to divide my attention between two things. Just hangin’ out like Nick Cave or Mick Jagger...well, not as intense as Mick Jagger. VWG: How do you like living in the Hudson Valley? KM: I’ll be here for a long time if not forever, frankly. I didn’t grow up here. I grew up in Albany and thought, “Wow. Life is just boring”, and when I moved here (New Paltz) I realized it’s great: not everything has to be a strip mall. I enjoy it a lot. The music around here is varied and ultimately there are a lot of styes all at once.
KM: Well, Father John Misty beat me to the record I’ve been softly conceiving for a long time: a record about modern life and what modernity represents. His SNL performance of “Pure Comedy” was amazing. That’s how I got turned on to his music. I was so shocked at how emotive he was. Turns out later he was on acid. It’s a moving performance. But he beat me to making that record I’d been conceiving. I definitely thought for a while about how, for example, I could write a song that involved a text message that wasn’t dated, stupid or clumsy. How do you make something as 2018 as a text message timeless? VWG: Yes. We’re at a point where we’re all trying to figure out how to integrate. KM: We’re definitely facing a crisis...an artistic crisis. People are feeling some kind of way. Everything we talked about, technology, modernity, converging with existential crises and philosophical crises, even if people don’t have the words to describe what that is...all those things converging is creating a crisis. The Beatles were the most successful rock band in history but didn’t necessarily address that. Maybe one of Bob Dylan’s records addressed it. Either The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited or Blonde on Blonde, touched on some crisis in the 60’s people were having. It’s not different from now except the element of real meaningful technology was not important. We’re still dealing with strife in equality, confusion, sorrow, existentialism, but guess what? People didn’t have cell phones on top of it. He touched everything but the cell phone. I think the next piece of art that people give a f**k about is gonna be whatever finally addresses that crisis. It has to be on a deep spiritual level, not surface. It can’t be about the fact that you don’t make enough money. It has to be something that touches the kernel of that problem...that tiny ember inside people.
VWG: And you’re working with someone local on a music video for “Fade Away”? KM: I am working on a music video with my good friend Ally Fernandez (IG: @ moondoggin). She’s a great photographer and videographer. The internet is amazing because so many interesting, weird, niche, customizable things are coming out. For the video I’m going to print my lyrics onto bendy straws so I’ll be drinking out of lyrics from the song. I’m also going to design a suit with a repetitive pattern. There are so many things you can have made. The Internet is a wholly interactive tool for information, education and creation. It’s why the 21st century is such a bizarre time to be alive. It’s a different Find Kyle Miller’s debut album Little place than our parents and grandparents Nothing on Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube. knew, both to our detriment and for good. Catch him live every 1st Tuesday (rain Goes both ways. or shine) at Jar’d in New Paltz, NY. VWG: What’s it like to be an artist in the Instagram: @slimeandpunishment 21st century, the age of information and technology? V an W yck Gazette - Spring 2018 Issue
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The Local Auction Scene Robert Pucci Now that spring is upon us, antique seekers and collectors will be out in force searching for treasures at flea markets and local antique centers. But there is another route to finding those treasures, one that is well suited to winter days and foul weather, in any season. It is also the place where most dealers find the items that you might purchase at the flea market or the local Antique Center. It is at auction. While online services such as eBay provide a 24/7 opportunity to purchase most kinds of items, and while there are some auction houses that only hold all online events, most prospective bidders like to examine the goods in person for those subtle details of condition that greatly affect value. That being said the best auctions are those that are local and live. In our area Hudson Valley Auctioneers in Beacon, Hyde Park Country Auctions in Poughkeepsie and George Cole Auctions in Red Hook hold auctions year round where collectors and those seeking to furnish a household find treasures and often bargains. It is a business that is also facing the challenges of the online markets and the apathy of millennials. It is New Year’s Day and there is a lively group of bidders making their way through the varied offerings at Hudson Valley Auctioneers on Main Street in the hipster haven city of Beacon. Owner Neil Vaughn and his auction manager Theo de Hass are answering questions and preparing for the bidding. In the meantime prospective buyers examine formal and country furniture, jewelry, paintings (both classical and abstract) and a couple of Steinway pianos. This eclectic mix is often found at local auctions, where several estates plus additions of individual pieces make up the items up for bid, almost all without reserves. While the crowd on this day seems of a good size, owner Vaughan points out, compared to previous years the crowds are shrinking as older collectors stop collecting, dealers retire, and a new generation of potential buyers seem to be indifferent to most items. I noticed a parent with a group of children pointing out the features of a large abstract painting / assemblage from the sixties. But they were not there necessarily to bid. Auctions are a great place to get an education. The alarm may sound at the Metropolitan Museum of Art when you get too close to something, but at an auction you can take things apart. Most of the bidders on this day were older and also dealers, meaning that as much as eighty percent of the sales will go to them for resale. One great benefit Page 8
Neil Vaughn’s New Year’s Day Auction of bidding at an auction is that a dealer will only bid so high. Most of the items are purchased with winning bids that reflect wholesale prices. At Hudson Valley Auctioneers the most desirable pieces, according to Vaughn, are furnishings that are Mid-Century Modern, designer jewelry, couture and watches. Echoing Vaughn’s appraisal of what is hot George Cole, of George Cole Auctions in Red Hook, cites Mid-Century Modern and the decorative arts associated with the period as they most sought after. Cole says classic antique furniture of the 17th, 18th and 19th century, especially Victorian furnishings, tend to be bargains. One might be able to furnish an entire house with handmade furniture for a fraction of the cost of their IKEA counterparts. Dom Navarro, of Hyde Park Country Auction located in Poughkeepsie, specializes in Americana and Country, Primitives, decorative arts and ephemera. He says country furniture in original paint is still very hot. But those fine antiques of the colonial and even early Federal period, never mind the Victorian pieces classified as brown furniture by their use of natural wood, often go begging for bids. Recently an entire custom dining room set with six chairs in excellent condition could be had for as little as $100. Of course a bargain is relative, Vaughn points out, as declining prices in many areas suggest that market adjustments are making creating estimates for sale items difficult. Vaughn says he was once able to give a catalog estimate within ten to twenty percent of the hammer price, today he says it is anybody’s guess. He does not like having to tell consigners that items they purchased, say 20 years ago, may now only bring a fraction of what they once did. He further cautions those who might think their purchase is an investment. While he noted that items bought and sold before 2000 may have seen increases in value since then, many items, from furniture to Staffordshire pottery, have seen their prices diminish. Dom Navarro agrees but says that many consigners don’t care about hammer prices. They are older and they feel it is just time to let the items go. The odd bits of ephemera and collectibles that evoked the childhood nostalgia of one generation have become irrelevant to another. Gone are markets for collectible figures such as Hummels and many types of figurative ceramics. Those who yearned for certain objects as children purchased them as adults. But, as a recent article suggested, millennials do not want their parents’ V an W yck Gazette - Spring 2018 Issue
Dom Navarro of Hyde Park Country Auctions
George Cole of George Cole Auctions
stuff. There are, of course, exceptions as Navarro points out “weekenders who buy period houses still want period furnishings to fill them.” At one of his Americana auctions one could find enough furniture, rugs, china and accessories to do just that. Chinese vases and jade are on the upswing, and primitives always bring good prices. While formal pieces struggle to get bids there is often lively competition for primitive painted furniture, especially if it has the right form, good paint and patina. Bucking the “all period look” there is an eclectic school that mixes and matches styles and time periods. This is seen in house make over television shows, magazines and online sites like Pinterest and Instagram. A primitive cupboard in mustard paint might be flanked by Mid-Century Ames chairs and share wall space with an abstract painting from the 70’s. Art can be a tough sell in an era where most living spaces are dominated by a 65 inch screen that displays millions of moving images in an hour. Vaughn says sometimes it is easiest to sell a bad abstract painting because the buyer saw something like it in a magazine. The buyers want to copy the look by placing a similar one over the couch. It may not have the quality, but the painting may make up for it in size, color and outrageous gesture. Navarro has the most success with Hudson River landscapes,
Folk Art portraits and well done Impressionist landscapes. While on a house call in Sharon, Connecticut to see a toy collection, Navarro spied a small Jasper Cropsey Hudson River School painting. Inquiring about selling it, the lady of the house was agreeable if it would go for the $20,000 she paid for it on a splurge after her divorce. Navarro did his research, and an interested buyer sent an expert to authenticate the work. The expert was pleased, and the buyer’s agent won the painting with a bid of $75,000. While it is customary to pick up or have items mailed, Navarro took no chances and drove the painting to its new owner in Boston. At a Cole auction one might find a lot of unsigned art or an etching by a print master like Piranesi or Reginald Marsh. Sometimes art is purchased, as the saying goes, for the frame alone. Lots of frames often attract artists and restorers who need to have a period look. Art frames of the late 19th and early 20th century can sometimes fetch prices in the thousands, the art held therein superfluous. Navarro concedes that there are changing tastes in buyers as well as the shrinking cadre of true collectors. Contrary to what one might think, rather than try to attract a younger crowd, he wants to attract older buyers who still appreciate finely crafted
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furniture and excellent original art. A love of history leads them to purchase daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, 19th century letters or a Lincoln life mask that was offered recently at Hyde Park Country Americana auction. Still, at a recent auction an oak roll top desk, once a thousand dollar item in Westchester antique shops, sold for one hundred dollars. An 18th century chest of drawers went for $275 at another auction. The buyer in the later example died before picking up his treasure. Vaughn says there is no generation of collectors taking the place of those that pass on. “Millennials do not feel the need to acquire artifacts or objects. They seem content with the experience of seeing them and taking a picture of them with their phone. So a picture posted on Instagram instead of a purchase will suffice and that does not bode well for the future of the business.” While audiences in the auction halls may be down, technology, to some degree, has come to the rescue. Live Auctioneers is an online service used by many auction houses to open up their auctions to a national and international audience. The local auctioneers use the service to varying degrees. Neil Vaughn puts 200 items up for bid both in the hall and online but reserves 300 items for the bidders who are in the hall or bidding by telephone. At Hyde Park Auctions the items in a catalog auction are available to bidders in the hall and also online, where an increasing number of sales are made. The percentage of online sales may easily exceed 50 percent at some auctions with the unseen winning bidder sitting at home sipping wine while wearing pajamas. Navarro sees the expansion of potential buyers from sometimes distant states and sometime distant lands (he has had phone bidders from London and New Delhi) as a good thing. In the hall most of the bidders may be dealers. While some dealers bid from home there are many more retail buyers when the auction is on line. It is important to remember that auctioneers are agents for their consigners trying to get as much as they can for the sale lots.
Vaughn calls the online component a necessary evil as he and the other auctioneers prefer the occasionally electric atmosphere created by spirited bidding in the hall. Those prospective buyers who are truly motivated feel the need to be there to ensure their success. How else might auctioneers achieve the kind of prices that get the hall to erupt in spontaneous applause? A windup toy sold for $22,000 at Hudson Valley Auctioneers. A vase sold for $40,000 at Hyde Park Country Auctions and a 94 foot yacht sold for $95,000 at George Cole Auctions. While these numbers do not compare with the sticker shock prices often achieved at Sotheby’s and Christie’s they represent good prices and good commissions. Even if you do not win your treasure, or even if you do not place a bid, you may find the competition, energy and occasional touches of humor good theater, and the show is always free. The three auctioneers interviewed in this article have been in business for combined total of over 100 years. While they may see the business as increasingly challenging, they are still excited by making great finds, and helping out family members who do not realize the value of a loved one’s collections, and look on the faces of winning bidders. With the opportunity to preserve historic artifacts for the next generations, both Navarro and Vaughn sometimes describe their efforts as rescues. All have the same advice for prospective bidder; inspect the goods and stay within your budget on any item. It is also good to remember, that in addition to the hammer price, a buyer’s premium of between 15 and 20 percent will be added to the invoice. Sometimes, with tax, this can add up and prove surprising to the buyer. Contrary to the way auctions are portrayed on television and film (and the old adage that there are no friends at an auction) these periodic opportunities to bid and buy fine art, furniture, and decorative arts are always friendly. They are sometimes exciting environments to collect bits of the past to furnish your present. Overcome the Amazon effect of buying everything online and get thee to an auction.
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“I Never Wanted to Feel Like I Had a Job” Mike Jurkovic When his electrician father came home from a long day with his newly lettered van the bells went off in the young artist’s head. He could do this, learn this, he swore to himself, beginning a lifelong commitment to art and helping people express their own that still brings him joy, nearly thirty years on. Nub, (yes I thought it was a cool painter’s nickname too like wearing your brushes down to the nub, but the truth is and the truth lies within SNL S7:E2 with Eddie Murphy singing Buh-Wheat and there you have it!) Then imagine having that transcendent lyrical accident -Woo-kin Pa Nub- splashed on the rear window of your ’81 Civic which, in a celebration of over-zealous youthful artistry, you painted process blue and accented with bright pink and lime green geometrics and a cartoon kid picking his nose and thus, from no greater origins, are legends born. “I was heavily influenced by Mad Magazine so I may have gone overboard,” he says with his perpetual grin, promising pictures of said vehicle. No longer did he have to steal his brothers crayons, draw on the wall and blame his sibling. Now he worked for and studied under a local New Windsor sign designer, Leif Syvertsen. But as his own ideas and visions began coming in waves, Nub Design was born then quickly morphed into what many know Hudson Valley and nation-wide as NubGrafix. (http://www. nubgrafix.com) He’s finally getting around to refurbishing his grandfather’s cherished ’66 Vespa Scooter. “It’s been with me through all four shops,” he says wistfully, with a reverence for both the man and the machine. “I’m feeling it’s time to do it justice.” He’s also feeling the pull of his art these days. “Yeah, I’m really more Page 12
’66 Vespa Scooter interested in doing my own stuff. The technical work, layout, spraying and powder coating (we won’t get into the weeds here) not so much.” To that end, he’s thinking it’s time to open his own gallery, hopefully in one of the small valley villages looking to welcome artists, artisans, and growth. “But it’s tough. The rents some of these places are looking to charge is very prohibitive. I don’t get it in a lot of ways. It kills Van W yck Gazette - Spring 2018 Issue
Clown
Ladies Red & Blue me that you ride down many Main Streets and there’s empty I’ll give myself a horizontal line just buildings and windows boarded up. What are they thinkin’? Do so I know where I’m at.” they want to bring people into the towns to celebrate local history His work dazzles but I notice and artisans or do they just want to make quick money and move a recurring motif: mummies and on? Anyway, for the moment, gallery shopping’s on the back skeletons. burner.” “It’s not just you, but what’s Many longtime friends, (of which I’m fortunate to have so the fascination with mummies many) unbeknownst to me, know him. Know of him. His color and skeletons. I’ve never and fine hand. His generosity and humor. His rescue bulldog understood it?” George stretching bear-like at our feet, attests to that. “Ninety “It’s just the motorcycle pounds of idiot,” he says playfully. Vanessa, his director of industry. Those are my roots. I’ve operations (“I do everything but paint,” she says with an easy always had a fascination with laugh) tosses a ball to the end of the studio and George galumphs skulls. We just did a tally of how after it. many skulls I gotta paint for 2018 Animal rescue is one of the charities dear to his and his wife and it’s close to three hundred Mackenzie’s heart. “I create a lot of designs for charity auctions. already.” But auctions, as satisfying as they are, are a gamble. A work “And that’s not counting you’ve invested so much time in can go for a lot or a very little.” quotes,” Vanessa adds. “Usually every three out of five quotes is “Do you sketch these designs out before hand?” “Nah,” he says, but not as a boast. “I usually start with a for skulls.” straight line down the middle and free hand it from there. Sometimes Today, XM’s Ozzy’s Boneyard
Pickle
Martin Nub X Guitar
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that,” he says, that grin ever-present. “I just hooked up with a jeweler in Illinois who’s using my pinstripe designs and turning them into things. I actually want to try and work with him. But right now I’m sending him designs and he’s making pendants and earrings. As I mentioned about our social media outreach, he contacted me through Facebook.” “I mean I’ve worked with Polich Foundry in Walden and Tallix in Beacon. But I like one and one because he’s just a guy like me. He’s got his jeweler’s workbench and a certain set of skills. I don’t know how to fashion jewelry myself so it’s a cool collaboration. I’m always looking for ways to spread the wings of this motorcycle -based art into new areas. Turn people on who might not be turned on by hot rods.” “I spoke to him last week and . . .” he seems to veer quickly onto a new train of thought but it’s all connected. “We’re actually going to start filming here, like a weekly blog kinda thing without all the TV drama, something more positive, people creating, teaching, and bring in other artists to show me what they do and I’ll show them my thing and we’ll trade and see what happens. I love working with other artists.”
rattles the paint cans. Tomorrow Hair Nation. He dismays the loss of the Pink Floyd channel. “It helps me create,” he says. “We get a lot of word of mouth work. I mean I don’t have any sign outside. Social media is huge for us too. But it does get tiring sometimes though, all the skulls. Pretty much doing the exact same thing.” “Is that for guitars too?” (Nub’s work has appeared on a line of Martin Nub X Guitars, he’s designed for one special Gibson guitar, price tag $30K. He’s also personalized instruments for Poison’s Brett Michaels, Rob Zombie guitarist John 5, and drums for Mark Wengren of Disturbed, Dream Theater’s Mike Mangini, Chickenfoot’s Chad Smith, Korn’s Ray Luzier, besides a host of regional rockers.) “I was friends with the artist relations guy at Pearl. So I’ve worked with Pearl Drums too.” “No, the guitars and instruments are usually something more personal.’ “How’d you get involved with musical instruments?” You can see him thinking back. “I don’t know exactly. It was just being a custom paint shop, doing signs. Couple people came by and I guess as word got out . . . Then we got involved with (Discovery Channel’s) American Chopper that’s filmed a few miles from here. From that Martin Guitars and a few other larger companies got in touch with me. That was pretty cool.” “Now that they’re reviving American Chopper are you going back to the show?” “Hell no! I won’t be part of that train wreck again. It’s too much unneeded drama and I don’t want in my head right now. It’s not where I think the bike industry is going and it’s for sure not where I’m going. It was great to be part of it. It was fun while it lasted. And because I have my own shop I tried to distance myself from all that TV stuff, all that drama. But it just spills over y’know. And when it affects what you’re doing for yourself, bye-bye. I’m done.” “Were you ever interested in making jewelry?” He looks at me like I’ve read his mind. “Funny you mention Page 14
“Sweet idea.” “It’s an idea I’ve had for years. It’s sort of like pinstripe jams. You get a bunch of guys hop on a design and it teaches you to do things you wouldn’t normally do because you’re following the guy before you. It’s fun and it recharges your creative battery.” “It’ll definitely be on YouTube and we might just do it live on Facebook. We have our biggest audience on Facebook right now. Then I’m thinking of bringing a musician in ‘cos I can’t work without the radio. (“We should really do that!” Vanessa asserts) “I can’t work in silence and I don’t want to sit there with headphones on ‘cos I can’t work as a hermit either.” “What made you so confident using social media?’ “It’s our lifeline to the world,” he says without hesitancy and Vanessa agrees with a boisterous “Yea!” “But you can’t take advantage of people. We’re a business page, not a fan page. We learned not to try and sell them something every day. People get mad at that. So we offer them quality. It took us a while to learn that, to work the room you might say, but it definitely benefits us. So anything I have in here that I never want to paint or design again we’ll never post a picture of. It opens up new wings.” “We get a lot of technical questions from people who do this so it’s almost like the free custom paint line. When I started this, none of this instant social interaction was around. It was all trial and error. But the kids today, oh man I know I’m sounding like an old dude, but they expect it right away. I don’t know if they just don’t want to spend the time learning something but it’s like: “Hey I got paints and a brush and. . .wooooosh!”” Have you ever thought of mentoring? “Except for the sign painting, I was on my own. People inspired me, Leif and others. We’ve had numerous interns, but after a day or two they’re like, man I’m bored. I used to do it with high school kids but it never worked out. The way I look at it is that high school isn’t that hard to get through. I didn’t get by on honors, (that makes two of us) but I think if you don’t have the drive to complete school, you may not have the drive to do most things. You just gotta do your time. I mean I passed English as a senior painting portraits of Shakespeare, but my art teacher wanted to fail me!” “So yeah, I’m into teaching and look forward to doing it again in the near future, but you have to meet me at least half way. I Van W yck Gazette - Spring 2018 Issue
Nub working on drums guess to be honest I want me. That kid who was me thirty years ago. I need to find me!” I get the full tour of his creatively cluttered, hyperactive workspace while Accept’s crunch metal “Balls to the Wall” cranks on. He begins rifling through a slew of old photographs to show me the fated ’81 Civic. “I know I had a side view and a picture of the kid picking nose,“ he recalls fondly. “It was a background character in Bloom County. Remember the comic strip Bloom County?”
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“Absolutely,” I reply. “I still have my Opus the Penguin doll.” “That’s who I painted on the car! (For the record, neither of us could recall the character and Dr. Google has been no help.) “You play as well?” “Yea. When we first opened the shop we set up this little jam room. (He plays guitar and piano, but the room accommodates a baby grand, several guitars, and his computer area. There was a set of drums, a gift from his friend at Pearl from Nickelback’s drummer.) “Have you ever been contacted by local theater groups to do stage sets? It would appear a natural pairing. Would that be something you’d consider getting into?” “No one’s approached me but yeah,” (he drags the yeah out cautiously) “if I have the time.” “I get involved with some strange projects that, because the artist overwhelms the businessman inside me, I’ll be like half way through some bizarre thing, shake my head and think - What the hell was I thinking?! Once I was approached by a guitar company that wanted to do a run of three thousand individual guitars and I was like, how can I do this? Then I remember I’m not built for mass production. Sure I could have used the money and still can. But I can’t do that.” “So painting that old blue Civic paid off!” “Yeah! Yeah! But this is a gift. But the hands-on gig is a tough road but however crazy it might be you gotta keep hitting it if you never want to feel like you have job.” Page 15
HappyLife Productions and the artwork of Mike DuBois Noel Chrisjohn Benson Over the tiny bridge in Woodstock, as you’re walking toward the library, there is a happy little store with happy workers, which not only holds some of the nicest logo designs and local artwork around, but is actually managed by one of the artists himself, Mike DuBois. DuBois is noted for his recognizable style, that goes along with the makings of old 60’s concert flyers, mingled into his own creations of psychedelic art and visions. He has done work for such artists as The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, The Allman Bros. Band, Santana and The Wailers to name a few. He also has made flyers for local concerts such as Mountain Jam and Gathering of the Vibes, even the album cover for Levon Helm’s “Electric Dirt” which went on to win a Grammy in 2010. HappyLife Productions is located at 54C Tinker St. Woodstock, NY in the Old Forge, a historic building on the Tannery Brook. Just past the Byrdcliffe Artists Guild, and across from the Center of Photography in town, which used to be the old Tinker St. Cafe. HappyLife also carries clothing, postcards, tapestries, hand-blown glass, incense, CBD oils, handmade hats, high quality tie dyes, as well as a huge selection of shirts with the coolest images and designs. “We try to keep the arts meaningful and mostly locally made, to keep the old Woodstock spirit flowing, and to continue the vibe from the 60’s into the present. We also handpick our items, so that we know where they come from, and our imports are with fair trade commerce, for the betterment of the artists, earth and Page 16
society”. Mike then pointed out some of the items for sale. “We have these pants with the elephant prints on them from the Elephant Pants Co., and 10% of these sales go to helping save the elephants. These hats are made by local fiber artist Bunny Lazoda. These are Haiku’s written by Rachel Marco-Havens. We also carry these CBD oils from CBD Daily, so you see, we go through our sources and see exactly where they come from”. One of the main attractions of the shop is the selection of T-shirts available, from older images of Woodstock era musicians, to artwork printed on the shirts from DuBois and other artists respectively. “I’m a diehard fan of these tie dyes, I never looked at them the same” mentioned Cherene Zito, one of the people behind the desk at the shop. “I always wear only these ones, and when I give gifts away, these are the ones I will always choose. Since I started working here I can tell these tie dyes from others from the highlights within the patterns”. She is referring to the selection of shirts made by Jamie Flynn from Saugerties, and Phil Brown from Rosendale. Both are considered to be the top tie dye artists on the east coast. On the other side of the store you have the HappyLife Gallery,
Cherene and Amanda Van W yck Gazette - Spring 2018 Issue
Mike DuBois of HappyLife Productions which houses a lot of work by DuBois, as well as hand-signed, limited edition art pieces by such artists as Tara McPherson, Emek, Mikio, Mark Spusta, Izzy Ivy and David Byrd. As well as photographs from Kelly Sinclair, Elliot Landy and Jake Blakesberg. The HappyLife Gallery carries a variety of artists that are at the top of their game in the music industry and pop art world. They have a large variety of limited edition prints, the artists span three generations of music and pop culture. They also carry works by the famous Alex Grey. Grey is known for his super psychedelic paintings that show complex maps of energies flowing through his subjects, like people making love, sharing love with one another, the messages coming from the universe or the energies coming from nature. He is a member of the Integral Institute, and is one of the co-founders of The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, a non-for profit church that supports Visionary Culture in Wappingers Falls, NY.
Figuring out at an early age that he had a knack for drawing, DuBois spent much of his time with a pencil and paper drawing throughout his childhood, becoming class clown of sorts, and drawing cartoons for his classmates. “I was always doodling on my books when I should of been doing homework” DuBois recalled. He won several prizes in Elementary School, and at age 12 designed a T-shirt for his father’s physical ed class, taught at Shea Jr. High School in Syracuse, NY. This also lent a way to winning a region-wide competition for an anti-pollution poster when he was in the fifth grade. “In my teens, I took printing classes in high school and began doing posters for local rock and punk bands that frequented Syracuse where I grew up. I then started creating my own posters of bands like The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd which I shared with my friends. I also painted the sides of buildings for the Syracuse Art Squad.”
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In the early 80’s DuBois attended New Paltz University to study metalsmithing and jewelry design, but kept up his creativity in his 2-D work. “I used to do all kinds of graphics and art for organizations, as well as bands and political events, and I would wheat paste political posters around various college towns”. That led to Mike starting his company “HappyLife Productions” in 1984. A year later DuBois moved to San Francisco where he began to design posters for bands and festivals in the Bay area. “I was into the punk scene when I lived in Upstate NY and I always kept a fine line between playing music and doing art”. Soon afterward he launched a line of greeting cards using his image affectionately known as “Sunface”. The same year he designed his first piece for the legendary Grateful Dead through the company “Not Fade Away” out of Kingston, NY. They had a license to use certain band’s names. “I eventually started to make my own contacts through networking at the various concerts and festivals that I would travel all over the country to attend and sell my designs. I printed “Sunface” onto postcards, and as people began purchase them often, shops and customers requested T-shirts with this image. I did a bunch of shirts with “Sunface” and brought them to a Dead show and they sold out immediately, I knew I was onto something. I then went back and began to sell them in the East Village in Manhattan.” Through “Not Fade Away”, DuBois also was able to design artwork for Santana, Blues Traveler, Hot Tuna and Wavy Gravy. I was lucky enough to see Jerry Garcia at Pepsi Arena in the 90’s, one of the last few concerts he would play. I felt like that was the first time I truly understood their music and lifestyle. The parking lot was like a madhouse. Crazy kids with fireworks, to people selling anything you could imagine, from pipes to burritos, pizza, rideshares, tickets, beer, water, and yes of course, illegal substances. I hung out at a makeshift bar built into the back of
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some travelers van then, after a few drinks, picked up my backpack and went in. I thought this would just be another stage, but there was a big Pink Floyd “eye in the sky” flashing images of everything, from old photos of the band when Pigpen was alive to images of Jimi, Janis, Jim, old photos of their travels, all while projecting the colored dancing bears in the middle of the room. Jerry was not like he usually was, not up front on the mic, but bobbing his whole body up and down like he was in a trance jamming out on his Gibson SG. As I was staring at that I realized, all the way at the top, there was another projection of live women silhouettes dancing to the music as if they were possessed by a magical genie. When I see this kind of artwork, it transpires my mind into thinking about the people I’ve met in my travels that wear these logos and designs close to their heart, like a token of their life that they will remember like I do my first concert. Many that knew each other, stuck together, took care of each other like a big family, no matter where in the country they were. Some have met on the road, some have hopped a train, some have hitch-hiked across the country, some have bussed it, some have driven. Most of my friends would treasure these shirts, like wear them until they are riddled with holes, even patch them up, to make them look even more like something out of Mad Max instead of fresh out of a gift shop. It’s a neat experience to meet up with a creator of those shirts and logos, and the clothing that will keep that culture within a culture alive. Through their part, the imagery is something that is truly American, because it was started here. Alive we are, but at some point, all of us, whether we like it or not, will eventually end up following the Dead. HappyLife Productions and HappyLife Gallery are open from 10:30-7pm, Mon-Fri, and 10-7pm, Sat & Sun or visit them online at www.happylifeproductions.com
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Easy Grilled Eggplant Tacos Nothing wakes up your taste buds more than the first few springtime recipes! This impressive taco will bring your gatherings to the next level in taste and presentation! It has turned into my families’ favorite; you know you have a hit when you find your daughter making eggplant taco’s to impress her friends!
Easy Grilled Eggplant Tacos (makes 8 small tacos) 8 baby eggplant 1/3 cup olive oil - divided 1 tablespoon salt - divided 1 tablespoon pepper - divided 1 ear fresh corn 2 cups pea shoots 1 1/2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar 3/4 cup sour cream 8 dashes hot sauce 8 small yellow corn tortillas – extra thin 1/3 cup red onion - diced Preheat grill to medium heat. 1.
Wash and dry eggplant. Brush eggplant with olive oil and season with a ¾ tablespoon of salt and pepper (reserve remaining oil for dressing). Place on hot grill and cook on all sides until browned and soft in the middle (about 5 -10 minutes depending on size of the eggplant).
2.
Place corn on hot grill or grill pan and cook on all sides until lightly charred (a couple of minutes). Remove from grill and cut kernels off cob and set aside.
3.
Wash pea shoots and dry with paper towel. In a small bowl add remaining oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and whisk together. Add pea shoots to dressing and toss - set aside.
4.
In a small bowl mix sour cream and hot sauce and set aside.
5.
Grill tortillas on the grill on both sides for a minute or two or until lightly charred.
6.
Place grilled tortillas on a serving dish, top with a grilled eggplant and even amount of diced onions, corn and pea shoots. Drizzle with sour cream and serve. Enjoy! www.bellasbanquet.com Page 19
The State of the Marijuana State Samara Ferris Thinking back to when the current US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, said, “Good people don’t smoke marijuana,” it is easy to imagine upon what the Department of Justice will be focusing its attentions and financial allotments this year. But, it’s not all about Nancy Reagan-esque “Just Say No” slogans firing off against a haze of stoners and pot-infused birthday cake…it’s a lucrative industry for federal, state, and local governments. There is also evidence that the legalization of marijuana can unintentionally drive down opioid overdose deaths, as it has in Colorado. Pondering its potential legality in New York State one day, what do we have to gain? Currently, marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, and has remained under this umbrella of classification since it was voted in during the 1970’s. Schedule 1 is the nomenclature and category reserved for the most dangerous drugs with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use, a bit of a conundrum considering the masses of studies attesting to the properties of certain strains of marijuana as antiseizure for epilepsy sufferers and the ability of marijuana to provide effective pain relief without the addictive quality or danger of opioids. In almost flat refusal of these findings, however, marijuana remains a Schedule 1 substance under Federal Law, running in
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direct opposition to the states that have voted to legalize medical, recreational, or both forms of marijuana. Despite the current risks operating against federal law pose, there is great benefit from the legalization of marijuana that should interest voters and government officials alike. In Colorado, for example, where recreational marijuana was legalized in 2014, the tax revenue from legal marijuana sales were a relativelymodest $67 million. With word spreading in 2015 of the ease and safety of legal marijuana purchases, the market increase led to $130 million in tax revenues. In 2016, the tax revenues were over $193 million. Given the poor standing of taxes with its citizens, these statistics might inspire anger over pride, but consider that in Colorado the state uses the first $40 million of each year’s worth of marijuana tax revenues on school construction and improvement. Isn’t education and access to it the worthiest of investments? At a comparable 25% tax upon recreational marijuana, over the course of one year, New York State would accrue a projected $544 million in revenue, based upon the demand in Colorado & Washington. That bears repetition: we stand to gain, as a state, a projected $544 million a year that we could use to re-build roads, to create green jobs, to send our kids to trade schools and state colleges for tuition-free. We could increase the benefits of the New York State of Health medical care system. We could give low-interest loans to farmers who need a bit more time to learn to compete in this new digital era. We could better train our state workers and make the police force stronger and safer with less violent reactionary tales by intensifying and varying training V an W yck Gazette - Spring 2018 Issue
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pertaining to drug use, mental illness, and more. We could protect our forests and our threatened wildlife. We could use those dollars to improve our roads with UV-glow-in-the-dark road paint to make driving at night easier and safer, saving lives. We could improve the quality and safety of life by utilizing this revenue stream, many states already have. For anyone wondering about this notion of marijuana as a gateway drug, I offer some interesting evidence to support just the opposite: according to “The Effects of Marijuana Liberalizations: Evidence from Monitoring the Future,” (by Angela K. Dills, Sietse Goffard, Jeffrey Miron) funded by the National Bureau of Economic Research, looser marijuana laws reduce the use of cocaine and heroin among teens. In Colorado, the date of legalization coincided with an immediate drop in opioid-related overdose deaths to the tune of about 23% or one less death per month, every month, since legalization. This is not a negligible finding. Though the study also found that marijuana was associated with an increased ease of procuring psychedelic drugs, the authors did not find this to result in deaths, as opioid procurement and addiction often do. The reasoning behind the association of marijuana with a lessening of opioid deaths is currently unclear though a common reasoning offers the assumption that opioid addiction often occurs after being introduced to opioid drugs through injury and legal acquirement. While treating pain from injury with legal opioid pain killers, people become addicted and often need increased dosages to feel the same effects. And when they can no longer acquire the drugs legally, they turn to black market pills, or when those become too expensive - heroin. But marijuana’s effects as a pain killer are scientifically proven. The assumption is that as marijuana becomes legal and easy to obtain, some people swap opioid use with marijuana, thus avoiding addiction and lessening the death toll of overdose. Adding to this good news, a National Academies report notes that they have yet to discover any evidence leading to the possibility of fatal cannabis overdose. As marijuana becomes legal, it may use its trading cards of blueberry lollipops and green Madagascar Vanilla cupcakes to thwart opioid addiction in some people and have a lasting effect on society by offering an alternative to treat pain. Marijuana does have its downside, though: according to The
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Denver Post between 2013-2016 in Colorado there was a 40% increase of drivers in fatal crashes. In 2015 for example, there were 99 people involved in fatal crashes who tested positive for THC, the “high chemical” in marijuana. That same year, however, alcohol still proved the more deadly drug with 187 fatal traffic deaths with the driver being tested positive for alcohol over the legal limit. Alcohol proves its dangers in Colorado with a growth from 129 alcoholrelated traffic fatalities in 2013 to 151 deaths in 2015. Yet the toll from marijuana-related fatalities were recorded at 47 in 2013 to 115 in 2016, still less than alcohol. The difficulties with collecting evidence about traffic fatalities is the disparity present between how long a drug stays present in the system. If one were to have five drinks on a Friday during a five-hour window, stay at a friend’s home, and then drive home Saturday evening and be the driver in a fatal car crash, he would test negative for alcohol since alcohol leaves the body at .015 of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) per hour. So, this fatal car crash would not be regarded as alcohol-related. If the same situation were to occur, trading in the five drinks in five hours for one joint, a few pulls from a bowl, or a couple of hits from a bong (oh, the choices!), that same incident would be regarded as marijuana-related because the metabolites of THC can remain present in your body for up to 77 days (with daily use) or even 48 days (if using about 5 times/week), creating a positive outcome on a urine test, even when you have not used marijuana in days or even weeks. A popular magazine, High Times, specializing in cannabis research explains: “But the by-products of THC, which are evidence of prior use, are fat-soluble. In other words, THC metabolites bond to fatty tissues, and this causes the body to take some time expelling them. So technically speaking, ‘weed’ doesn’t stay in your urine, THC-COOH [the metabolic by-product of THC] does. And it’s totally inactive, meaning you’re not still under the influence of cannabis despite the presence of this chemical in your system.” With that in mind, all we can truly assume from the statistics of marijuana-related vehicular fatalities is that more people who ingest or smoke marijuana are at some point also driving a car. “So, why is it still illegal?” remains the question. Making another drug legal rests on the assumption that lawmakers will look at facts,
will put away their own opinions, and will make a choice benefitting all of society based on facts alone. Yet, we all know this is not nearly the case. Charged with emotion, anecdotal stories, and the prescribes of religion, law makers are imperfect decision-makers skewed by the tides of politics, lobbying, and opinion. Introducing a new element into society requires money and effort: new licenses must be created, taxed, controlled, reviewed. New bureaus must be created. New people hired. New restrictions and requirements made, researched, and alternatives set. Police and EMS must be trained for understanding the effects of marijuana, just as they have been trained to understand those impaired by alcohol, psychedelics, cocaine, mental illness, and opioids. Laws must be passed that require opposing sides to work together, and, not many are convinced despite the evidence. We may be a relatively liberal state, but outside of NYC, we’re a state of farmers, churchgoers, and right-leaners, which have historically been the strongest opponents of legalization. As facts recover from the libel of “fake news” and begin to take prominence in the decision-making processes again, and as we see the benefits to society marijuana can offer as a non-addictive pain killer, as a multi-million-dollar revenuemaker, as a job creator from the growers to the harvesters to the bakers and the “pottenders,” to helping to minimize opioidoverdose-related deaths, we can at least begin to see the landscape with clarity, without the fulminating invective from lobbyists, well-meaning parents, and fact-absolving politicians. I challenge you: do the research. Ask the questions. Look at the facts. Decide for yourself. And maybe one day, book that trip to see your college roommate in Colorado, buy one of those pot-infused “Thin Mint” cookies, throw on Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and see where it takes you.
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845-831-4000 Van W yck Gazette - Spring 2018 Issue
The Words of Winter Adrea Gibbs I grew up in Southern California, but during my eighth year we moved to Massachusetts. During winter. It was the first time we had lived in snow. Our family had seen, played, even vacationed in snow, so the element wasn’t something with which we weren’t familiar, but living in it was a different story. Snow days were that of which dreams were made, for us kids, anyway. Pretty sure that was lost on my mom who wrangled with 4 kids and a cat confined in the house. Still, when those snow days became tediously endless for boredom and poor weather or the environment became an amalgamation of slush and dirty water, the glamour evaporated quickly for every unpredictable ankle-deep puddle we unwittingly discovered on the way to the bus stop. Winter did not have the romanticized luster of every holiday movie we watched in earnest. My husband had never seen snow until the year we went to Alaska to celebrate Christmas with my parents. One of my brothers and his wife lived in Anchorage, and on multiple occasions I had trekked north for the holiday, or summer or any excuse, really. My husband had never experienced a “real” winter, until stepping out of the car to partake in his first snowfall. Coupled with a spectacular view of Denali, in all its snowy-capped glory, it was quite the introductory setting. He was nothing short of captivated, if not giddy. At least until the cold got the better of him after ten minutes or so. It was all new to him. Even a bit magical. As an interesting side note, my mom took a bit of issue that for all the trips she and my dad had made north, they had never seen Denali in its entirety. It’s hard, sometimes, in the majesty of a wintry spectacle, not to take things Mother Nature does personally, especially when earnest attempts had been made. A year later, we moved to northern New York. In the winter. My husband shared with me, following his first official wrestling match with our (then) new snowblower, if I had asked would he consider moving to snow country as we visited the 49th state. After thawing out, he, no doubt, would have told me I was crazy. So, here we are, living the North Country life. Power outages and dirty snow getting slung up by the town plow on the freshly blown driveway are seemingly daily realities. While one need only look out the window at lithely wafting snowflakes gently touching down on the last stubborn bits of autumnal grass, or wake to see deer tracks dappling a blanket of fresh snow to realize there are two sides to this winter tale. It is definitely a love – hate relationship for many, but having seasons is, to my way of thinking, a gift, an expression of the natural world over which we have no control. Beautiful as it is dangerous. Heart-warming as it is cold.
As I contemplated the Mid-Atlantic winter, I thought to search for words often associated with this time of year. Bare and barren, biting, bitter cold, bleak and blustery, under “B”, are as stark as the images they invoke. Words beginning with “C” were atmospheric and somewhat bright with chilling, chilly, clear, crisp, clean, and crunchy akin to the first sled run down a hill after the first snow. The “D’s” however; dark, dead, depressing, desolate, dismal, drafty, and dreary lean toward the “dismal.” There are magical words that instantly conjure visions of a fantasy laden land, perhaps home to the Sugar Plum Fairy. Crystalline, enchanted, glistening, glacial, sparkling, and boreal each light, airy, and beautiful. “F” is fairly straight-forward for freezing, frigid, frostbitten, and frosty, leave little room for interpretation save any child-driven-Disney-influence pertaining most particularly to the word “frozen.” Fluffy is a good word, too, but I find myself thinking of puppies and kittens when presented without additional context. Powdery is a bit that way, too, unless I happen to be in ski-mode. Otherwise, I’m thinking deodorant, but that could just be me. “S” offers slippery, slushy, shivering, and, any word that includes “snow.” This is also true of any word that includes “ice.” Unending is probably a favored word by many when that anticipated front rears its wintry head come March or April just as the seedlings start to poke up. “W” seems too obvious; white, wintertime, wintery, and the aforementioned, wintry. “Zippy,” was another I found interesting, but, for me, goes straight back to that first encounter with waist-deep snow in our Massachusetts front yard. It occurred probably within a day or two, if not the very day, we moved into the house we would call home on Edgewater Drive for the next year. As two of my brothers and I fell into the snowdrifts, our youngest brother, all of 2 at the time, was able to toddle across the top with no fear of getting sunk. As we laughed and cavorted, we heard someone yelling “Zippy” from a house across the street and field from where we played. Suddenly, a large ball of fluff came bounding through the snow, apparently as a way to introduce us to his owners and our new neighbors. Zippy was a white, standard poodle who had a wild abandon for playing in the snow and was more than happy to join the fun. Now that I think of it, I may be Zippy-influenced when it comes to the word “fluffy.” Circling back to my husband and his personal thoughts on snow. On the morning following the first major snow storm since our move to the North Country, I got up to find the front door blown in and a snowbank in the front entry way. He never heard a peep from me about what I had discovered, when I hastily shoveled back outside, before he woke up. I feared that may have sent him packing back to Los Angeles in a hurry. Page 23
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