Upstater Volume 3 Number 3 by Chronogram Media

VO LU M E 3 - N U M B E R 3

Griffin Dunne’s Family Portrait 22

CATCHERS OF THE RYE: CREATING A NEW YORK STATE SPIRIT

JEREMIAH MOSS: A REQUIEM FOR NEW YORK CITY’S SOUL

AYAHUASCA ADVENTURES IN PERU, NEW YORK CITY, AND THE HUDSON VALLEY

3-D PRINTING’S DIY HOME-BUILDING PROMISES

Europe has never been closer. Fly nonstop to Ireland, Norway, and the UK.

STEWART AIRPORT, PORT AUTHORITY NY-NJ Stewart is proud to welcome Norwegian to its family of carriers which include Allegiant, American, Delta and JetBlue. Norwegian offers low fares, new planes and award-winning service. At Stewart, you will enjoy the sophistication of a large airport without all the fuss. Located in the Hudson Valley, Stewart is minutes off the NYS Thruway and features easy access parking located opposite the terminal.

Getting to Stewart from midtown Manhattan is simple! Begin your vacation right away â&#x20AC;&#x201D; jump on the Stewart Airport Express nonstop bus service departing from the Port Authority Bus Terminal and be there in just 90 minutes. Travel just doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get any easier than flying out of Stewart.

Convenient. Easy. Hassle-Free.

modern

At Lindal we are very proud that for over 70 years we have been producing homes that are modern in spirit and warm in nature. At the heart of the Lindal Experience lives progress and tradition, inspiration and predictability – the cutting-edge architecture is delivered through the time-honored building systems of Lindal Cedar homes and backed by a lifetime structural warranty. Lindal Cedar Homes has designed and produced over 50,000 homes, built throughout the world in every climate, on every type of terrain, and in every regulatory environment. Since the introduction of its modern design program in 2008, Lindal has been the modern systemsbuilt ‘prefab’ home of choice for our clients. We will be happy to speak with you about the services we offer, including free site evaluations and site visits, and our free Design Program.

Atlantic Custom Homes, Inc. Stop by our Classic Lindal model at: 2785 Route 9 • Cold Spring, NY 10516 888.558.2636 • 845.265.2636 Info@LindalNY.com www.HudsonValleyCedarHomes.com

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Welcome Back to the Catskills

Best Catskills Getaway! Spacious Accommodations • Day Spa • Woodnotes Grille • The Country Stores World’s Largest Kaleidoscope • Outdoor Adventures in Nature’s Playground 2

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WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL

Josh Wiggins in Walking Out

FILM INDUSTRY, MEET ULSTER COUNTY For many A-list actors, directors, producers, and screenwriters, the Woodstock Film Festival is the gateway to filmmaking in the Hudson Valley. Meet filmmaker Alex Smith, who brought his film Winter in the Blood (co-directed with his brother Andrew) to the 2013 festival. When the Smiths were looking to edit their next film, Walking Out, they chose Ulster County, spending four months on post-production. Smith now lives in Woodstock, and is developing a historical ghost story TV series to be shot locally.

Photos courtesy of Woodstock Film Festival and Alex Smith

Alex Smith at the Woodstock Film Festival

It is no surprise why filmmaker Alex Smith chooses to live and work in Ulster County. With a tax credit of up to 45% for filming and post-production, stunning scenery, easy access to and from New York City, and a ready pool of experienced talent, Ulster County is the best choice for your next film or TV project. Call us today to learn why there is never been a better time to film here. The Ulster County Film Office is ready to meet your every need. Ulsterforbusiness.com (845) 340-3556

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TABLE of

CONTENTS

upstater Vo l u m e 3 | I s s u e 3

36 On the Road Again

NORTH + NOMAD’s Karen Biswas takes a break from shooting at Joshua Tree National Park.

THIS & THAT

FEATURES

Family Portrait

Cooking on the Fly

22 26

FI LM

Actor Griffin Dunne brings his aunt Joan Didion to the screen. Story by Nina Shengold Photos by Pamela Pasco FOOD

With her new cookbook, Back Pocket Pasta, Colu Henry redefines fast food. Story by Jana Martin Photos by Jesse Turnquist DR I N K

Catchers of the Rye

Seven distillers are working to revive New York’s whiskey-making tradition. Story by Erik Ofgang Photos by Karen Pearson

Adventures in Ayahuasca

Wayfaring Wild

CU LTU R E

Requiem for Sense of Place

Blogger Jeremiah Moss wants to save New York City from destroying itself through gentrification. Can he do more than log our losses? Story by Sari Botton Photos by Hillary Harvey

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TR E N DS

The ancient plant medicine promises healing and enlightenment—in the Amazon and New York State. Story by Elissa Garay Photos by John Garay WAN DE R LUST

Road-tripping lets a couple recharge their creativity. Story by Karen Biswas / Photos by Karen and Simon Biswas DESIG N

Print Your Own Home

A New York architect is starting a 3-D-printed home revolution in the Hudson Valley. He may even take it to Mars. Story by Mary Angeles Armstrong Photos by Roy Gumpel AT HOM E

The Art of the View

Two artists leave New York City for Kingston, where they design their own live/work space for an adaptivereuse project. Story and photos by Hillary Harvey

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5 THINGS WE LEARNED FROM THIS ISSUE

CHECK OUT OUR TEAM

CARTOON: MATTHEW PLEVA

OBJECTIFIED: THE BICYCLE

ON-THE-MARKET POSTS

CLOSURE: OPEN FOR BUSINESS

ON THE COVER Griffin Dunne at home in downtown Manhattan, photographed by Pamela Pasco.

Above: Photo by Simon Biswas

Stylish country homes to fit every budget, from Small to XL. Perfect Country Estate $3,499,000

Exquisite 1860s manor on 56 park-like acres in Ghent NY overlooking 8 acre pond. Guest house, pristine barns, pastures. 4,900 sf, 5 BR/4.5 BA. Formal dining room, library, game room & chef’s kitchen. Back terrace, porches, gym, formal gardens. Property technologically updated for easily conducted business. Turnkey, property manager.

❚ Pamela Belfor 917.734.7142

Modern Farmhouse Estate $3,295,000

Privately sited on 21+ protected acres, architect-designed 7 BR/5.5 BA compound in Ancram NY. 60’ pool & 360° Berkshires & Taconic Mtn. views. Private courtyard, grand entry hall connects modern addition to original barn. Reclaimed woods, Spanish tiles & limestone, professional chef’s appliances, 4 fireplaces. Views from every room, screened porch & patios.

❚ Harriet Shur 518.965.2144

Hudson Riverhouse

$898,000

Fantastic riverfront property w/ 650’ direct river frontage & private shoreline. Incredible setting, 4 BR/1.5 BA county modern farmhouse chic home, renovated, new mechanicals, windows, metal roof, screened porch, heated in-ground pool & stone patio. Watch passing boats & sunrises in unbelievable Hudson Valley getaway in Catskill NY.

❚ David Ludwig 917.365.1894

Acorn Hill Retreat

$574,900

Contemporary farmhouse privately set on 4+ acres on quiet country road in Olivebridge NY. Open floor plan, 6 BR/3.5 BA, family room w/ wood-burning fireplace, master suite & 4-season sunroom w/ access to back deck overlooking expansive backyard w/ rock outcroppings. Detached 2-car garage has 2 BR apt. on 2nd floor.

❚ Tracy Dober 845.399.6715

Hillsdale Waterfront Eyebrow

$415,000

Historic home w/ original wide plank floors, FP & exposed beams in Hillsdale NY. Renovated kitchen w/ custom cabinetry, granite counters, farm sink & breakfast room. Formal dining room, Great Room, wood stove & deck. Nearly 10 acres, Roeliff Jansen Kill frontage, beach & swimming hole.

❚ Pamela Belfor 917.734.7142

Claverack Painted Lady $249,000

Grand 3 BR/2.5 BA Victorian home. Formal entry & stair hall, stained glass, French doors, decorative molding, 10’ ceilings, bay windows & hardwood floors throughout. Walk-up attic/bedroom/studio. Old growth trees, wrap around porch, sunroom & carriage house. Located in quiet area of beautiful homes in Claverack NY.

❚ David Ludwig 917.365.1894

Tivoli NY • Hudson NY • Catskill NY • Rhinebeck NY

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Griffin Dunne’s Family Portrait 22

CATCHERS OF THE RYE: CREATING A NEW YORK STATE SPIRIT

JEREMIAH MOSS: A REQUIEM FOR NEW YORK CITY’S SOUL

AYAHUASCA ADVENTURES IN PERU, NEW YORK CITY, AND THE HUDSON VALLEY

3-D PRINTING’S DIY HOME-BUILDING PROMISES

.com upstater

E V E R Y D AY

A PAINT SHEEN PRIMER By Amy Krane

We all know that choosing paint sheen (or finish) is one of the most difficult decisions for the average homeowner. There are many different sheens available, and to complicate the matter, paint manufacturers use a different array of names to describe more or less the same finish from brand to brand. upstater.com/primer-paint-sheen/

CELERY ROOT SOUP

OLD GAME FARM GLAMPING

By Bryan Calvert

By Kandy Harris

We had so much fun getting to know James restaurant’s chef/co-owner Bryan Calvert for our profile in the Summer 2017 issue of Upstater that we asked him to share a delicious dinner recipe for the fall. He recommended this celery root soup, perfect for a dinner party on a cool autumn evening. He says, “This soup’s celery root base is satisfying with nothing more than a drizzle of olive oil and slice of crusty bread. I like to top it off with smoked trout, quick curry oil, and a little crunch from pears.” upstater.com/fall-dinner-recipe-celery-soup

Feeling adventurous? Then we suggest an Old Game Farm glamping trip to give you something to talk about at your next dinner party. If you recall, we recently devoted an entire week to glamping destinations in the Hudson Valley and Catskills, something we never thought we would do back when glamping was just a novelty for those who didn’t mind paying a bit more to sleep off the ground in a decent tent and all details (food, warmth, the ability to bathe) accounted for. upstater.com/old-game-farm-glamping/

THE BARTLETT HOUSE—A GHENT DESTINATION

TAKE YOUR PICK OF THE HUDSON VALLEY’S PEACHES A PLENTY

By Hannah Van Sickle

By Kandy Harris

In 2015, we posted that the historic Bartlett House was for sale. Last summer, after 11 years of standing empty, the three-story square Italianate-style brick building on Route 66 was revived by a trio of entrepreneurs keen on curating a neighborhood destination known for its hospitality and old world charm. One year later—with both menu and mission in full bloom— they remain committed to transforming daily sustenance into sheer pleasure for those exploring the Hudson Valley.

We have it on good authority that peaches have gone crazy this year. You can visit local farmers’ markets and stock up to quell your peach craving. Peach ice cream, anyone? Or peaches on the grill? I can attest that grilled peaches are delicious, especially with brown sugar and vanilla ice cream. You can also get peaches in bulk and preserve them. Or, you can roll up your sleeves and engage in a beloved Hudson Valley summer tradition: picking your own fruit from a local orchard.

upstater.com/bartlett-house/

upstater.com/take-pick-hudson-valleys-peaches-plenty/

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5 THINGS WE LEARNED FROM THIS ISSUE

upstater EDITORIAL EDITOR

Susan Piperato susan@luminarymedia.com ART DIRECTOR

Jim Maximowicz jmaximowicz@luminarymedia.com CARTOON EDITOR

Carolita Johnson carolitajohnson@gmail.com PROOFREADER

Peter Aaron

Joan Didion 1. Whenever’sr blo ck, she wraps

gets write stic and her manuscript in pla er. (See eez fr the o puts it int page 14.)

CONTRIBUTORS

Peter Aaron, Mary Angeles Armstrong, Karen Biswas, Simon Biswas, Sari Botton, Jen Doll, Jason Cring, Elissa Garay, John Garay, Marie Gillett, Roy Gumpel, Kandy Harris, Hillary Harvey, Jana Martin, Peter D. Martin, Erik Ofgang, Pamela Pasco, Karen Pearson, Matthew Pleva, Nina Shengold, Jesse Turnquist

PUBLISHING FOUNDERS & PUBLISHERS

Amara Projansky & Jason Stern CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Amara Projansky

2. Someday we will dig

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Brian K. Mahoney

up the ground wherever we are—maybe even on Mars—and 3-D print our own houses with it. (See page 46.)

CHAIRMAN

David Dell Upstater is a project of Luminary Media.

ADVERTISING SALES (845) 334-8600 X106 DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & SALES

Julian Lesser julian.lesser@luminarymedia.com

3. Rest assured, you know someone

who knows someone who can lead you to the ayahuasca vine in New York State. (See page 30.)

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Ralph Jenkins rjenkins@luminarymedia.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Anne Wygal awygal@luminarymedia.com

ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR OF EVENTS & SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER

Samantha Liotta samantha@luminarymedia.com

Rules are meant to be broken, especially when it comes to cooking. So be more spontaneous. Forage in your fridge for ingredients. And quit measuring everything; just eyeball it. (See page 18.)

5. A turn-of-the-20thcentury murder in Upstate New York inspired the plot of “Twin Peaks”—and the character of Laura Palmer. (See page 10.)

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OFFICE MANAGER

Phylicia Chartier phylicia@luminarymedia.com BOOKKEEPER

Molly Rausch accounting@luminarymedia.com

PRODUCTION PRODUCTION MANAGER

Sean Hansen sean@luminarymedia.com PRODUCTION DESIGNERS

Kerry Tinger Kate Brodowska

LUMINARY MEDIA 314 Wall Street, Kingston, NY 12401 (845) 334-8600 | fax (845) 334-8610 luminarymedia.com All contents © Luminary Media Inc. 2017 For extended coverage of the upstater lifestyle, join us at upstater.com. Founded in 2011, Upstater magazine and Upstater.com present the Hudson Valley as a state of mind, and act as a guide for visiting and living in the region. Our writers, artists, staff members, and featured personalities have their hearts, mortgages, and legacies in the Hudson Valley.

Photos: Netflix, Roy Gumpel, John Garay, Jesse Turnquist, Matthew Pleva

CH E C K OU T OU R

TEAM LOOK FOR CONTENT BETWEEN ISSUES FROM YOUR FAVORITE CONTRIBUTORS AT upstater.com.

Matthew Pleva is a Kingston native who creates pen-and-ink drawings, illustrations, jewelry, buttons, dioramas, and murals from his uptown studio.

@ANNICKMAGAC

Photos: Andy Milford, Karen Biswas, Jana Martin, Sharon Shatz

Karen and Simon Biswas are the creative team behind the content studio NORTH + NOMAD, based in Los Angeles and New York. With backgrounds in advertising, copywriting, and journalism, they specialize in visuals, sound, and story in several mediums, producing and directing projects around the world for clients like the New York Times, Microsoft, West Elm, and Jim Beam.

Jana Martin writes, teaches, and lives in the Hudson Valley. She’s the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books, a contributing editor for TheWeeklings, and has appeared in a variety of publications, including Chronogram, the New York Times, Marie Claire, and Glimmer Train.

Jen Doll is the author of the memoir Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest and the upcoming young adult novel Unclaimed Baggage. She’s written for The Atlantic, Elle, Esquire, Glamour, GQ, New York Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, Vice, the Village Voice, The Week, and other publications.

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CARTOON

OH, COME ON, ANGEL The “Twin Peaks” story is a haunting one: A seemingly innocent, smalltown beauty named Laura Palmer is murdered. The investigation of her killing triggers an insidious stream of disturbing disclosures about Laura’s life and the many people who knew her. But few people realize that this famous cult TV show, set in a fictitious logging town on a lake in Washington State, was inspired by a real-life murder that took place in Upstate New York. In 1908, the body of Hazel Irene Drew, a 19-year-old nanny and hotel worker, was discovered floating in Sand Lake in Rensselaer County. Hazel looked like Laura and died like her too, mysteriously. And Hazel would have been forgotten if writer Mark Frost had not spent his childhood summers in the ’50s and ’60s visiting his grandparents at Sand Lake. His grandmother’s don’t-go-into-the-woods-tonight ghost stories scared him so much that Frost remembered Hazel decades later while developing “Twin Peaks” with filmmaker David Lynch. Discovering that Hazel inspired the show was revelatory for me.

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Hazel Irene Drew, surrounded by some of her possible killers—and an angel named Laura Palmer.

Hazel’s murder, like Laura’s, exposed her secrets and produced a bizarre range of suspects from across the community. But while Laura’s killer was revealed, Hazel’s murder remains unsolved—although maybe not for long, thanks to Sand Lake historian Ron Hughes, who is researching the murder for a book. I found myself drawing Hazel’s body washed up on shore, surrounded by some of her suspected killers. Among them were her uncle (the man holding the picture frame); a mystic/hypnotist/alleged sexual Svengali (the man in the swami hat); a dentist (the man with the gas tank); and a 20-year-old local guy who allegedly tortured animals. I based my angel on the angel/ghost of Laura from the end of the 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. After speaking to Agent Cooper, the angel comes to take the murdered Laura away. Laura cries. And cries. Finally, her nightmare is over. In the film, Laura is the angel watching over herself. But my angel is just a regular angel watching over Hazel. Or maybe it’s Laura Palmer herself. —Matthew Pleva

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n the 1980s, Matt Bialecki was living in New York City when friends took him rock climbing in the Gunks. As a longtime land preservation activist, he was moved by the Hudson Valley’s pristine natural landscape, and as an architect, he was drawn to the historic buildings and character of the small towns nestled between the mountains and Hudson River. Bialecki moved his practice to New Paltz in 1987. In the 30 years since then, Bialecki has Matthew Bialecki, AIA dedicated himself to discovering the Hudson Valley’s architectural identity by interpreting the regional vernacular and working with local materials and sustainable building systems. The hallmark of his portfolio is a commitment to working with—rather than on—a specific site. Taking into account the land’s natural features and topography, he brings the site into the architectural design to create a seamless integration between landscape and building. His designs for public buildings like Sam’s Point Visitor Center and the Ashokan Center blend land conservation, local sourcing, and green building technologies to create functional, beautiful, modern structures. Bialecki’s distinctive architectural expression has earned him seven AIA awards over three decades, as well as numerous other regional and national accolades. Working with cutting-edge sustainable technologies and modern design principles, Bialecki has created a timeless tribute to the Hudson Valley region.

B IALECK IARCH ITECTS.C OM

Check out our website, videos and an interactive map for more details about the Greater Walkway Experience

walkway.org/visit

The Greater Walkway Experience and digital presence is made possible by grants from Empire State Development and its I LOVE NEW YORK program under Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Council Initiative. Additional support provided by Ulster County IDA, AT&T, Hudson Valley Greenway, partners and sponsors.

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OBJECTIFIED

S T O RY B Y P E T E R D . M A RT I N | I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y J A S O N C R I N G

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B U I LT F O R B U I LT F O R

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FILM

STO RY BY NINA S HENGOLD | PORT RAIT O F GRI FFI N DUN N E BY PA MELA PA SCO

STILLS FROM THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD (from left): Julian Wasser photographed Joan Didion in the 1960s, when her essays focused on Californian culture, and in her Los Angeles home in 1972.

FAMILY PORTRAIT

Photos: Net

flix

Griffin Dunne brings his aunt Joan Didion to the screen. There’s nothing like a first audience to spike an actor/ filmmaker’s blood pressure. Having starred in ’80s film classics An American Werewolf in London and After Hours, as well as, most recently, in Amazon’s hit TV show “I Love Dick” with Kathryn Hahn; producing such indie classics as Chilly Scenes of Winter and Baby It’s You; and directing a bevy of Hollywood features, Griffin Dunne has seen plenty of highpressure screenings. But nothing compared with showing a roughcut of his new documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold to its subject and star. “We were side by side on the couch in front of my laptop,” Dunne recalls, speaking by phone from New York. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous for any screening.” Didion burst onto America’s cultural landscape in the midSixties with the scorching force of a Santa Ana wind. She’s a writer’s writer, revered for her crystalline prose, incisive gaze, and unflinching honesty. Could the stakes be any higher? Well, yes. She’s also Dunne’s aunt. Their family connection and mutual fondness gave the filmmaker nonpareil access and trust. “I thought I was the only one in a position to ask and be given permission,” says Dunne; Didion had turned down several previous offers from documentarians. “So I asked her, and she said yes. And I thought, ‘Oh boy, here I go.’ It was an awesome responsibility.” Their closeness informs the film’s texture. Dunne provides some narration and occasionally appears onscreen with his subject, who is now 82. And no other director could

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have asked Didion where she first heard about the Manson murders and gotten the answer, “In your mother’s swimming pool.” (With a reporter’s eye for detail, she recalls that Beatriz Dunne wore a Pucci swimsuit.) Dunne’s father, the late writer/producer Dominick Dunne, was also a Hollywood insider. But his uncle, John Gregory Dunne, and his wife Joan Didion held a special allure, with their intertwined A-list careers, Malibu beach house, fast cars, and dark sunglasses. In a Kickstarter video for his documentary, Dunne calls them “the hippest couple on earth.” “They opened up their social world to me,” he says. “I was always included in their parties, even when I was very young.” Dunne’s first directorial effort, Duke of Groove, in 1996, an Oscar-nominated short starring Tobey Maguire, was inspired by his having attended Didion and Dunne’s book party for Tom Wolfe while his parents’ marriage crumbled; Janis Joplin was among the guests. After his parents divorced, Dunne moved to New York. He studied acting at HB Studios and started working in film, eventually forming the production company Double Play with Amy Robinson. Nearly two decades ago, he bought a former dairy farm in Dutchess County. “It’s my haven,” he says of the rambling spread, which includes a swimming pond and small menagerie (dog, ponies, an ostrich), calling it “the greatest thing, outside of having a child, I’ve ever done.” His daughter Hannah, an actress, is now 27.

Griffin Dunne at home in Lower Manhattan. FA L L

2017

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There’s also the mesmerizing ballet of her hands, which sometimes seem to be combing invisible nets. “As you get older, things become more extended,” Dunne observes. “You look at these old TV interviews and she always did that, as if she’s grabbing thoughts out of the air, making associations physically as well as in words.” Interviewing his Aunt Joan was “daunting.” He’d seen enough on-camera interviews to know “she does not suffer fools. If somebody asks her a stupid question, she can fix you with a look that will shut you right down.” He says Didion never declared any topic off limits, including the death of her adopted daughter Quintana, which she wrote about in her 2011 memoir Blue Nights. “She’s very much of the school of ‘That’s what I said, that’s what I wrote.’ No apologies, ever.” Sharp-eyed and painfully thin, Didion appears both ruthless and vulnerable. Asked how she felt as a reporter seeing a five-year-old on acid, she says bluntly, “Lemme tell you, it was gold. You live for moments like that, good or bad.” But she’s anguished by the memory of finding drug paraphernalia in Quintana’s nursery after a party: “How could anyone do that?” Dunne’s team also collaged archival footage of Didion’s subject matter—the ’60s counterculture, political turmoil— with period music and readings from her work. She’s watched every cut, “until about 10 minutes ago; we just changed a music cue,” Dunne says. “They’ll have to pry this film out of my cold dead hands.” They’d better act fast. His next gig, in Italy, is to play Leonard Bernstein in the biopic Gore (Vidal, not Al). “Making a documentary is a high-wire act. You never know what you’re going to get,” says Dunne. “I can’t wait to shoot something with a script.” u

Joan Didion, with her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, and their adopted daughter Quintana, at their Los Angeles home in 1968, photographed by Julian Wasser.

Photo: Netflix

Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold will screen at this year’s Woodstock Film Festival; Dunne is a longtime member of the WFF’s advisory board and WFF screened his feature Fierce People in 2006. Executive Director Meira Blaustein says she began speaking with Dunne a few years ago about screening the film, which she calls “a rare, intimate, and much anticipated look at the life of his aunt and one of America’s most influential literary icons.” After several festival screenings, Netflix will give the documentary a global launch on October 27. Netflix’s support capped a six-year process of raising money, gathering archival materials, and shooting interviews with Didion and some of her very articulate friends (Anna Wintour, Tom Brokaw, and Harrison Ford, among others). “I would shoot and then stop, go off and do other jobs, come back and put more money into it,” says Dunne. Along with “I Love Dick,” those “other jobs” included recent roles in Dallas Buyers’ Club and “House of Lies.” Dunne also reread Didion’s canon in chronological order: early essays for Vogue, debut novel Run River, breakthrough nonfiction collection Slouching Toward Bethlehem; screenplays for The Panic in Needle Park, Play It As It Lays, and others with her husband; The White Album; Salvador; Miami; and National Book Award-winner The Year of Magical Thinking (also a Broadway play starring Vanessa Redgrave), a memoir of her husband’s death. Didion’s is a mountain range of a career, spanning multiple genres. “In my darker moments, I thought, ‘What new things are people going to learn about Joan? She’s written everything about herself,’” Dunne admits. But even her nephew discovered surprises while filming: When Didion gets blocked, she wraps the manuscript in a plastic bag and puts it in the freezer.

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FOOD

STO RY BY JANA M ART IN | PHOTOS BY JESSE TURNQ UI ST

Cooking on the Fly With her new cookbook, Back Pocket Pasta, Colu Henry redefines fast food.

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hen it comes to creating recipes, most cookbook writers are exacting, expecting readers to follow their instructions to the letter. But not Colu Henry. As the author of Back Pocket Pasta: Inspired Dinners to Cook on the Fly (Clarkson Potter), published last summer, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all about jumping in, improvising, tasting the sauce, and above all, eating. Henry honed her culinary acumen as special projects director at Bon Appetit. But sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also an entirely modern, joyful, social, savvy cook who gained fame by plating delights for the social media buffet table of Instagram. Her cookbook began as a hashtag.

“I was working at Bon Appetit,” Henry told me in late September, during one of her rare pockets of downtime. “I was coming home really late after work and I was exhausted. But I didn’t feel like getting takeout all the time. I wanted to cook something soulful and simple, something comforting and good. I grew up in an Italian family and we had pasta two to three times a week. So I started looking in my pantry, using whatever I had.” But of course here the road diverges: Unlike most mortals, Henry’s impromptu pasta dishes were more like alchemy than well, okay, I’ll eat it necessity. While the pasta water boiled, she’d chop this, sprinkle that, dollop this, shred that, and achieve a symphonic harmony of noodles and stuff. About five years ago, she began posting the dishes on Instagram—then a relatively new social media—to show people what she was making for dinner. “And I started a hashtag, #backpocketpasta,” she says. “People started using it for themselves. Suddenly it was really taking off. A friend said, ‘You know, this really ought to be a cookbook.’ I got a real bee in my bonnet.” Then, at a book party, says Henry, “the stars aligned.” She worked the room, wine glass in hand and goal in mind, landing both an agent and a publisher by pitching one of its cookbook editors on the spot. She enlisted the help of some talented

friends and colleagues, worked up a well-designed proposal with sumptuous sample photographs, and Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House, loved it. With the same matter-of-fact intensity with which she can study her pantry shelves, grab a hunk of something from the refrigerator, and then conceive of a sublime concoction like Orechiette with Fresh Corn and Burrata (on page 116 of Back Pocket), Henry threw herself into making the book. From start to finish, Back Pocket took two and half intense years. From the beginning, she wanted to provide choices and ease, not regimentation. There’s a running theme here: Henry knew as much about what she didn’t want as what she did. It makes for a perfect mix: a cookbook that inspires you to take your own ingredients and your own ideas, and cook off the page. Rules are meant to be broken, notes Henry. So go break ’em. Back Pocket is divided not by purpose but by place. A section on dishes collects the flavors of her Italian heritage, tracing back to her ancestral roots in Teora, located in the southern Campania region, and the tenements of the Lower East Side. Another section conjures up the quick and effervescent spirit of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Henry and her husband once lived. There’s a section on cooking while traveling— wherever Henry goes, she tends to cook a meal, jamming with her host over their stove. But the section that’s the most joyful

MAKING IT UP AS SHE GOES ALONG: Colu Henry cooks an entirely unplanned but inspired meal, using whatever fresh ingredients are on hand, at her home in Hudson.

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focuses on Hudson, where she now lives full time. It’s a farm-to-table, peruse-the-marketsand-fill-the-basket celebration of a good life in the country, and it’s irresistible. When Henry and I got a chance to chat, she had just tossed together a quick and earthy pasta dish with pancetta, burst sun gold tomatoes, radicchio, and summer herbs— not by following a recipe but by foraging ingredients, Back Pocket Pasta-style, from her fridge. Immediately, she began riffing on the process, making anyone within earshot instantly hungry—especially me. “I just start looking in my pantry,” she says, proving the approach is not a gimmick, but a way of life. “I found some leftover pancetta and rendered it in olive oil, took that out and added in these gorgeous sun gold tomatoes from the market, so they cooked down in the pancetta fat and burst, and then I realized I had a radicchio from Sparrowbush Farm [outside Hudson]— I just love them. They do a winter CSA every year and I just signed up.” Henry diverged into talking about her shopping routine, which involves hitting the local farmer’s market and then meeting friends for a beer at Suarez Brewery in nearby Livingston—thus turning an errand into an event the same way she turns pasta into, well, something better. And then we were back to the process at hand: “I added some chopped garlic [also from Sparrowbush, garlic freaks take note], and then the radicchio cut into wide ribbons, hot pepper flakes, some of the salty pasta water as the pasta cooked to help the leaves wilt.” To that fresh and endof-summer perfect mix, she returned the pancetta, tossed in the pasta, grated some Locatelli pecorino and let the cheese emulsify into silk, and then topped it all off with some torn basil leaves. “Just what I had around,” she says with a certain pleasure. There is a relaxed precision to how Henry cooks: as she talks, her fingers are always busy. She’s a connoisseur of good gear, and the kitchen in her Hudson home is renovated dream of efficiency and space: marble, dove gray cabinets, a Verona stainless steel range, Staub pots and pans. But she has no tolerance for preciousness or rigidity, noting the present-day obsession with Chemex coffee makers with a certain pragmatism: “I’m not fancy about my coffee in the morning, I don’t have the time.” Henry’s book is filled with tips that preach this same blend of doing it right and doing it fun: Never drain your pasta and then rinse in cold water and coat it with oil. That is a sin

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that ruins its starchy goodness and means the sauce can’t stick. But on the other hand, if you want to switch one ingredient for another in a recipe, by all means do. “I don’t generally follow recipes myself,” Henry says. “I did write a book with them, but it’s to encourage people to figure out what works well and have fun with it. Don’t measure so much. Eyeball it. Yes, baking is a different story—that’s chemistry, which I didn’t do well in at school anyway. But I think really having fun with something, and not being so caught up with the nitty-gritty, that’s great.” Opinion given, she gets back to business—preparing for a trip to Portland, Oregon, for a food festival. After that, she’ll be focusing on the renovation of Otto’s Market in Germantown, which she and her husband recently took over with some friends. That will be yet another labor of love, in which Henry turns one thing into something else that’s full of surprises and entirely better. u

From top: The finished dish, including leftover pancetta, Locatelli pecorino cheese, and freshly cooked pasta; Colu Henry’s book.

HIKING

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DRINK

STO RY BY ERIK OFGANG | PHOTOS BY KA REN PEA RSO N

CATCHERS OF THE RYE

Seven distillers are working to revive New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s whiskey-making tradition. 22 upstater

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rior to Prohibition, rye whiskey reigned supreme in New York. Farmers planted rye in great abundance and the grain thrived in the region’s rocky soils and often cold climate. When alcohol became illegal in the US in 1920, the state’s rye fields went fallow and whiskey ceased being made from the grain. By 1933, when the nation’s failed experiment with abstinence came to end, the damage to New York spirits production had already been done, and the tradition of making rye whiskey in the state was not revived. In Kentucky and elsewhere in the South, bourbon—a sweeter, corn-based whiskey—thrived post-Prohibition and became the dominant American variety. In 2007, Tuthilltown Spirits in Gardiner launched Hudson Manhattan Rye, the first legally distilled rye whiskey made in New York State after Prohibition—which, incidentally, won an Ultimate Spirits Championship award this year. Now Tuthilltown has joined six other distilleries to revive New York’s lost rye-producing tradition via the creation of Empire Rye: Coppersea Distilling, located, like Tuthilltown, in the Hudson Valley; New York Distilling Company, Kings County Distillery, and Van Brunt Stillhouse in New York City; Finger Lakes Distilling; and Black Button Distilling in Rochester. Why rye? First of all, it’s historical. “Rye is such a quintessentially New York spirit,” notes Van Brunt Stillhouse co-owner Daric Schlesselman, “dating back to the earliest Dutch settlers.” Empire Rye’s rigorous guidelines require, among other things, that the whiskey be made from a mash bill (the mix of grains used at the start of the whiskey-making process) consisting of 75 percent New York State rye grain, and that the whiskey be aged for at least two years in charred, new oak barrels at not more than 115 proof at time of entry.

Distillers who follow these guidelines will earn the right to label their whiskey as an “Empire Rye,” and consumers will know that they are getting a distinctive New York State product, the same way that scotch drinkers know their whiskey is produced in Scotland according to strict criteria, and champagne drinkers know the bubbly beverage is carbonated and made from grapes in the Champagne region of France. These spirit producers hope the strict guildlines will make “New York State” and “rye” as synonymous as “Kentucky” and “bourbon.” Congress declared bourbon a “distinctive product of the US” in 1964, and ever since then, in order to be labeled “bourbon,” a spirit must be produced in the US. More than 90 percent of all bourbon is produced in Kentucky. “All of the distillers involved in this project, we have a very deep affection for our state and we want to give it its whiskey,” says Christopher Williams, chief distiller at Coppersea Distilling in New Paltz, who dreamed up the Empire Rye concept. Tom Potter, co-owner of New York Distilling Company in Brooklyn, one of the guidelines’ originators, hopes the Empire Rye label will make this type of whiskey equivalent with New York. “If people think of Kentucky as the place where bourbon comes from, where does rye come from? It should come from New York,” he says. “We feel there’s an opportunity to create a historically true identity and expand on that and take advantage of our strengths: our history-making rye whiskey, the agricultural ability to grow terrific rye here, [and the fact that] New York has always been the world capital of cocktails.” Potter believes that the project is the type “that benefits from a group effort.” He explains, “No one distillery is going to create a style that is recognized or a terroir that is appreciated. It takes a broader effort.”

Christopher Williams, the chief distiller at Coppersea Distilling in New Paltz, had a notion for a New York potion.

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From left: A New York State flag hangs in Coppersea Distilling; Ken Migliorelli at Migliorelli Farm in Tivoli supplies rye to Coppersea Distilling.

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MAKING THE CUT

Williams drafted the guidelines in collaboration with representatives from five other distilleries. An additional distillery, Van Brunt Stillhouse in New York City, did not participate in writing the guidelines but has already adopted them, and is participating in the label’s launch. Williams admits to having long nurtured an “almost obsession” with regional styles of food and drink. “It’s always fascinated me, the evolution of these styles,” he says, “whether it’s a whiskey style or wine style or cheese style or some regional food that leads to a range of similar dishes that, from a perspective of provenance, are strongly associated with a particular country or region.” Historically, whether it’s a drink like scotch or a musical style like Delta blues, explains Williams, regional styles tend to develop best when they can evolve and grow naturally over time, free of influence from the outside world. In today’s era of instant communication, that’s unlikely to happen naturally, so Williams and his fellow distillers decided to contrive a set of standards to create a New York style. The group of style originators unveiled their respective Empire Rye whiskeys in October after having aged them the requisite two years. Now the Empire Rye distinction is open to any New York distillers who are willing to meet the guidelines. “The unveiling of this is also an invitation to every other distillery in New York State to make this style,” Williams says. “By no means are we trying to keep this completely in our provenance. The point is to get as many distilleries as possible to make this style.” It’s too soon to tell what the common flavor characteristics of Empire Rye might be. “I think you’ll see plenty of variety,” says Brian McKenzie, president and owner of Finger Lakes Distilling in Burdett, who was involved in the creation of the style. “Our agreed-upon rules will make the style somewhat distinctive / u p s t a t e r.c o m

across the spectrum of Empire Ryes, but also allow the producers to be creative and put their own spin on the product.” Finger Lakes Distilling is producing a single-barrel rye whiskey from a mash bill consisting of 80 percent rye and 20 percent malted barley. The whiskey that has resulted has “a ton of rye spice,” McKenzie says. In contrast, Williams is making his rye whiskey from a mash bill of 100 percent, New York-grown malted rye. He says the whiskey has notes of wildflower honey, “toasted biscuits, blackberry, nutmeg, and cinnamon.” New York Distilling Company’s take on the style will be a version of its Ragtime Rye, with applejack barrel finishing. In addition to the 75-percent rye requirement, its mash bill consists of 15 percent New York corn and 10 percent malted barley from out of state. After aging for two years in oak, the rye whiskey is finished for three months in an applejack barrel. “The applejack finishing provides a real bright floral note to the rye,” Potter says. “We think it’s a wonderful combination of the spiciness of the rye and the bright green floral apple notes.”

DISTILLING FOR DISTINCTION

An element uniting all the Empire Ryes will be the New Yorkgrown rye itself, which has a distinctive flavor. “The soils here are definitely different than the soils out in the Midwest or California, so there’s a good chance that a rye grown here as opposed to other parts of the country might have a different flavor,” says Ken Migliorelli, who owns Migliorelli Farm in Tivoli, where Williams buys his rye. And exactly what New York State’s soils will add to the finished rye whiskey product also remains to be seen. “We don’t really know, we’re learning about what kinds of flavors can be elicited,” Williams says. In terms of rye whiskey in general, Potter, who cofounded

EMPIRE RYE STYLE

ORIGINATORS COPPERSEA DISTILLING 239 Springtown Road New Paltz (845) 444-1044 coppersea.com

BONTICOU CRAG STRAIGHT RE MALT WHISKEY Voluptuous notes of caramel, nutmeg, and cinnamon on a backbone of wildflower honey, opening up to blackberry/cherry flavors with a comforting graham cracker and chocolate finish.

TUTHILLTOWN SPIRITS HUDSON MANHATTAN EMPIRE RYE SINGLE BARREL Amber honey colored; nose of rye bread, apricot, and cashew butter; complex, vibrant, rich palate opens with vanilla toffee, rye grain, and pepper spice with hints of honey, raisin, apple, and mint, followed by a drying cracked-pepper finish.

14 Grist Mill Lane Gardiner (845) 255-1527 tuthilltown.com

NEW YORK DISTILLING COMPANY 79 Richardson Street Brooklyn (718) 412-0874 nydistilling.com

RAGTIME RYE Soft, honeyed nose with the flavor of bold, racy rye; notes of dark cherry, caramelized pineapple, and light cedar.

KINGS COUNTY DISTILLERY 299 Sands Street, Building 121 Brooklyn (347) 689-4180 kingscountydistillery.com

KINGS COUNTY DISTILLERY STRAIGHT RYE WHISKEY Notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, maple, mint, anise and fresh hay. Fullbodied, silky palate reveals baking spice and crème brûlée, giving way on the finish to notes of warm bread and cut grass.

FINGER LAKES DISTILLING the Brooklyn Brewery in 1988, believes it will become to the burgeoning craft distilling world what the IPA is to craft beer. “If you think of American whiskeys as traditionally rye and bourbon, bourbon is the easier drink; it’s sweeter, corn is a sweet grain,” he says. “Rye, by contrast, is inherently spicy. It’s a little more challenging, but it also offers more flavor opportunities.” Potter believes Empire Rye will build up a following the way craft brews did. “When craft and small breweries were atiny part of the market, nobody was asking for a more challenging beer,” he recalls. “They were asking for something that was more interesting. There were no IPAs, all of us were making Englishstyle pale ales, porters, and stouts. Nobody, initially, was making the more bitter, challenging beers that came to prominence later.” In the meantime, Empire Rye’s ultimate goal is to serve as a calling card for New York State. “We want to make something that the state can be proud of,” says Williams. “When people go abroad, they’ll bring a bottle of Empire Rye and say, ‘This is what has been wrought in my state.’” And Kings County Distillery owner Colin Spoelman has no doubt that Empire Rye will compete well with “the big brands,” which don’t offer much transparency about their origins. “I think the big takeaway for people should be that this is an exciting concept for now, but will only get more interesting as time goes on,” he says. “Whiskey is a long game.” u

4676 Route 414 Burdett (607) 546-5510 fingerlakesdistilling.com

MCKENZIE SINGLE BARREL STRAIGHT RYE WHISKEY Big rye spice with notes of honey and spearmint.

BLACK BUTTON DISTILLING 85 Railroad Street Rochester (585) 730-4512 blackbuttondistilling.com

BLACK BUTTON DISTILLING SMALL-BATCH STRAIGHT RYE WHISKEY A big, oaky nose; soft, grassy finish; and almost no burn. Surprisingly approachable for a rye whiskey. Created to be appreciated by novice and experienced rye drinkers alike.

EMPIRE RYE STYLE

FIRST ADOPTER VAN BRUNT STILLHOUSE 6 Bay Street Brooklyn (718) 852-6405 vanbruntstillhouse.com

VAN BRUNT STILLHOUSE EMPIRE RYE WHISKEY Smooth, fruity notes on the nose with a mid-palate that is soft and caramel, finishing smooth yet spicy, with hints of chocolate on the long finish.

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CULTURE

STO RY BY SARI BOT TON | PHOTOS BY H I LLA RY H A RVEY

Requiem for Sense of Place

Blogger Jeremiah Moss is crusading to save New York City from destroying itself through gentrification. Can he do more than log our losses?

t’s a muggy Friday afternoon in late August, and I’m showing New York City writer Jeremiah Moss around Uptown Kingston.

Dashing between raindrops, I take him to commercial properties that have recently been sold to landlords from New York City for way, way above appraised value. On the way to the Cioni building, a 22,680-square-foot former school built in 1841, we walk past other brick buildings, beautified with murals painted during Kingston’s annual O+ art and music festivals—The Hobgoblin of Old Dutch by Matthew Pleva, Bilancia by Kimberly Kae, Artemis Emerging from the Quarry by a painter who goes by the name Gaia. When I mention that a bid of $4.23 million was recently accepted for the Cioni— more than twice the next highest bid—Moss’s jaw drops. Then we stop in front of a storefront with its windows papered over, the former site of a small, independently owned guitar shop that relocated after the building’s new owner raised the rent by 67 percent. “The rent went up how much?!” Moss asks. I repeat the number. His surprise is, well, somewhat surprising, considering who he is. Moss is well known among New York City dwellers and ex-pats alike for his blog, Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York, AKA The Book of Lamentations: A Bitterly Nostalgic Look at a City in the Process of Going Extinct, where, since 2007, he’s chronicled the shuttering of one New York institution after another. Several times a week, he laments the rising astronomical rents killing favorite restaurants like Midtown

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showbiz canteen Cafe Edison, nightclubs like CBGB, watering holes like Mars Bar, and mom-and-pop stores like Pearl Paint. He started #SaveNYC, “a grassroots, crowd-sourced, DIY movement to raise awareness and take action for protecting and preserving the diversity and uniqueness of the urban fabric in New York City,” according to its website, SaveNYC. nyc—a place where people can post videos and photos about businesses that need support in the face of rising rents. Moss organizes protests, most of which he himself sits out because, as a psychotherapist, he has long cloaked his identity. In the June 26, 2017 issue of The New Yorker, Moss revealed himself to be Griffin Hansbury, a psychotherapist and a transgender man, but for all things Vanishing New York, he still prefers to go by his pseudonym, which he borrowed from the protagonist of a novel he wrote while pursuing an MFA in creative writing at NYU. I’ve read in other interviews that the character’s voice is “cranky,” or “grumpy.” “Is your character’s voice different from yours?” I ask. “Not really,” Moss says. “But it’s sort of a distilled version of mine.” He also frequently gripes publically—on his blog, in newspaper op-eds—about urban planning policies that privilege corporations over people, and give tax breaks to major chains taking over the city’s landscape. “My activism is largely discursive,” he says. “I do it through writing to raise awareness and hopefully inspire others to action. I think that has happened—or people tell me it has. I know my writing, in particular about policies, has inspired some politicians and

other activists. So that’s something.” The subject at the heart of all of his writing is neoliberalism. “I’m such a pain in the ass about neoliberalism, because I love talking about it,” Moss says, clarifying that there is actually nothing “liberal” about it. He defines neoliberalism as “an economic philosophy that is about redistributing wealth and other resources from the bottom to the top—privatization, deregulation. It’s how we got here.” Just two years prior to Moss’s blog launching, in November, 2005, my husband and I moved to the Kingston area after a housing court battle ended with us being evicted from our rundown, sprawling, under-market-value apartment in the East Village. During our last years in the city, we had noticed a dramatic acceleration in the frequency with which our favorite haunts were closing, thanks to rapidly rising rents. Our own rent had more than tripled in just one year, once our landlord received landmark status and realized the building wasn’t rent stabilized. It was like gentrification on steroids. Or, to use a term Moss coined, we were witnessing the effects of—and we were casualties of—hypergentrification. Vanishing New York supplied the balm for my broken New York City-expat heart. I read every post, and then, with the advent of Facebook, noticed that many of my friends were reading and reposting Moss’s blog postings, too—both the ones who were still hanging on in the city and my new community of fellow New York City-expats in the Hudson Valley. Now there’s more Moss for his many fans to read. In August, he published Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul (Dey Street Books). It’s not your typical blog-

to-book proposition; this is not a compendium of ancient blog posts. Instead, it’s a beautifully written, thoughtful, and comprehensive postmortem on what happened to the city to which Moss had excitedly moved to over 20 years before, from a working-class Boston suburb, to attend graduate school. The book seamlessly combines historical reporting, economic and social theory, and bits of memoir. I decided to bring Moss to our much smaller city for an inconversation book event at City Hall so that we could discuss the mechanics of what happened in New York City, and, I hoped, use Moss’s feedback to begin to strategize a defense against hyper-gentrification here. As Kingston residents, we want to see our long-depressed city revitalize and grow, but in a sustainable way, without the ill effects of hypergentrification leading to the displacement of writers and artists like me, people of color, and others who are disadvantaged and have been marginalized. But before Moss’s reading and talk are to begin, I squire him throughout Kingston—first on foot through Uptown; then by car through Midtown and Downtown; and finally out to Kingston Point and the Hutton Brick Yards, where an upstate edition of Smorgasburg has become a monthly feature from May through October. At the end of our tour, he mentions the name Richard Florida. “Have you read any of his books?” Moss asks. He explains that Florida, beginning with the 2002 release of his book, The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, and Everyday Life, was a proponent of revitalizing depressed cities by luring artists to them. But

Vanishing New York blogger Jeremiah Moss in front of Kingston City Hall, where he read from his book in August and took questions from the audience on hypergentrification.

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recently he realized that approach is contributing to hypergentrification. (One wonders how this hadn’t occurred to Florida sooner, given what began happening in Soho in the 1980s. )Florida has since recanted, and recently published something of a mea culpa, The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class—and What We Can Do About It (Basic Books). But it’s too late for Florida’s suggestions for ways to “bring about a new and more inclusive urbanism that encourages innovation and wealth creation while generating good jobs, rising living standards, and a better way of life for all,” as Florida writes in the introduction to The New Urban Crisis. Moss says, “Florida has had an effect on so many cities, and once they get hypergentrified, there’s no turning back.” About 100 people show up for the book event at City Hall, filling the benches in the council chambers. I ask for a show of hands: How many people used to live in New York City? How many moved upstate because they got priced out? Most in attendance raise them high. I interview Moss, looking for him to interpret his book and what he’s witnessed in New York City as warning signs for Kingston. It turns out that I’m not the only one wanting him to read the tea leaves. “I hear from people all over the country, asking the same questions,” he says. “I’m hearing from people in San Francisco, Boston, Portland, Seattle. This is happening everywhere.” But people in Kingston want to ask questions, too. After our conversation, a woman steps up to the mic. “My parents lived in Greenwich Village from 1950 to ’65,” she explains. “They were raising my sister and me on my father’s modest income, four blocks away from Washington Square Park. Can you foresee a way that a city could ever go through the kind of change New York has, and return to being a place where working-class, or lower-middle-class, or middle-class people could actually live and raise families?” Moss responds, “I think we can go back by going forward. We are in a revolutionary place right now. It really is about more democracy. The more we fight for more democracy, for more citizenship, the more we can change the larger system— that’s where it has to be changed. “ I can’t help but ask Moss, “How do we, as artists, play a different role? What can we do to allow for growth, but stem the tidal wave of gentrification?”

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Moss doesn’t have one simple answer, other than to recommend getting involved—attending meetings, especially about rezoning and planning, and fighting cities giving tax breaks to developers—to become activists for things like commercial rent control, and stand up for the poor. “But it’s hard to stop,” he admits. “There’s only so much we can do, unfortunately. I’ve tried to fight for small businesses. Fighting for one at a time doesn’t work. Fighting for scraps of affordable housing, it just doesn’t work. It raises the awareness of it, which is great, but without getting at the policies that are creating this, nothing’s going to change.” That’s not to say that Moss is completely done with standing up for mom-and-pop stores. “I haven’t given up on staging protests or #SaveNYC,” he says. “I think it’s useful to call attention to the issues through the individual fights, for the individual businesses.” After the event, we head to dinner. Moss laments that the building housing his psychotherapy practice in Manhattan has been sold for an exorbitant sum. He doesn’t know what he’ll do when the rent inevitably gets jacked up. “Have you considered moving to Kingston?” I ask. He smiles, but he doesn’t respond. u

Clockwise from top left: Jeremiah Moss’s audience at Kingston City Hall; Moss reads from his book; Kingston’s Cioni building, a former school constructed in 1841, for which a bid of $4.23 million has been accepted.

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Kadampa Meditation Center New York kadampanewyork.org FA L L

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TRENDS

STORY BY ELIS SA GARAY | PHOTOS BY JO H N GA RAY

ADVENTURES IN

The ancient plant medicine promises healing and enlightenmentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in the Amazon and New York State.

Luis Robayo, a Colombian native who now lives in the Hudson Valley, spent three years working as a translator and shamanic apprentice at a Peruvian ayahuasca retreat center. Here, he displays some of the traditional items used in ayahuasca ceremonies.

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health seems to be in decline, and spiritual angst is on the rise—ayahuasca’s nascent US arrival fits well into the subculture that is calling for a more holistic, self-soothing lifestyle. In an age where yoga, meditation, detoxification, and organic diets are being embraced, ayahuasca promises the potential for powerful personal growth and healing. It’s a Mother Earth-prescribed medicine, perhaps, for our increasingly troubled times.

Amanda Villalobos

AYA-WHAT-SCA?: JUNGLE MEDICINE DEFINED

Above: Guides at the Temple of the Way of Light in Peru. Below: The chacruna leaf is a main component of traditional ayahuasca brew.

Amanda Villalobos

oul searching. Depression. Anxiety. Trauma. Addiction. Plain old curiosity. The many roads that lead to ayahuasca—an ancient Amazonian plant medicine that’s ritualistically ingested for its purported psychospiritual properties—are distinct, if convergent. For many centuries, ayahuasca’s mysteries were hidden away from the world at large, confined to the depths of the Amazon, where shamans from indigenous tribes served as gatekeepers to the plant’s psychoactive and seemingly otherworldly realm. Most of ayahuasca’s early history is undocumented, lost to the jungle. The plant’s first reported brush with Europeans occurred in the 16th century, when Spanish and Portuguese Christian missionaries observed indigenous South Americans utilizing the plant, proclaiming the rituals “the work of the devil.” In the intervening centuries, news of encounters with ayahuasca came intermittently from botanists and explorers; perhaps only since the dawn of the new millennium has ayahuasca’s reputation fully pivoted from frightening to fascinating for Americans—and people around the world. And, thanks to its curative and visionary potential, ayahuasca use is growing in New York City and the Hudson Valley. Recently, several celebrities have openly recounted their transcendental ayahuasca experiences, including director Oliver Stone and musicians like Sting, who said it made him feel “wired to the entire cosmos”; Tori Amos; and Paul Simon, who chronicled his ayahuasca journey in the song “Spirit Voices.” But reports of the plant’s reported mystical powers first emerged in American culture via the mid-20th-century musings of Beat writer William S. Burroughs and poet Allen Ginsberg; later on, its uses were documented in several books and memoirs by psychedelics proponent Terence McKenna and his brother Dennis McKenna, an ethnopharmacologist. In today’s materialistic modern world—where our days are dominated by screen time and digital distraction, mental

Administered via a bitter brew, ayahuasca frequently triggers hallucinations along with an introspective state of mind that is marked by insightful encounters with vivid memories, emotions, and past traumas. Used ritualistically for centuries by Amazonian tribal societies, the chemical soup of ayahuasca is concocted by the boiling down and brewing of two (or more) plants: always, the woody ayahuasca or Banisteriopsis caapi vine, and most commonly, the leaves from the chacruna shrub. Pharmacologically speaking, the two plants synergistically combine dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) to activate the brain for full hallucinogenic effect. Devotees are loath to call ayahuasca a drug, however. Instead, they refer to the potion as “plant medicine,” and view ayahuasca in spiritual terms as a “teacher plant” or a plant spirit that’s sentient, self-aware, and intent on healing. Indeed, ayahuasca is hardly a recreational drug experience, and its place is far removed from college dorm rooms filled with mindless giggles: An informed ayahuasca user is looking not for a party, but rather for healing, enlightenment, and therapeutic potential.

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THE DRIVE TO “DRINK”

Artist Luis Robayo says his ayahuasca experiences have made his drawings “more spiritual and more in touch with nature.”

While Amazonians revere ayahuasca as a vehicle for physical, mental, and spiritual healing, they also attribute magical undertones to the visionary and mythological landscape in which the ayahuasca experience unfolds. Tori Amos, for instance, described her experience of the drug like “walking around Fantasia.” This alternate reality, laden with spiritual entities and archetypes, is reachable via participation in traditions-rich ceremonies conducted under the watchful eye of a shaman intermediary, who is trained in liaising between the two worlds. And in the scientific world, helmed by organizations like the California-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS); the UK-based Beckley Foundation; and the International Center for Ethnobotanical, Education, Research and Service (ICEERS), an international coalition of ethnobotanical professionals, the effect of this psychedelic brew on the brain and psyche has been the subject of exciting headlines for some major publications, including The Guardian (“Is ayahuasca the future of PTSD treatment?”), Business Insider (“This psychedelic drug seems to affect the brain in ways that are surprisingly similar to meditation”), and New York Magazine (“It’s time for cautious excitement about ayahuasca as depression treatment”). In the same vein, The New Yorker ran a story in 2015 by nature, culture, and food writer Michael Pollan on how “research into psychedelics, shut down for decades, is now yielding exciting results,” and documented similar breakthrough clinical studies with psychedelic mediums like LSD and psilocybin mushrooms. Meanwhile, small-scale scientific studies, led by institutions like the University of São Paulo, the Brain Institute at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil, and Sant Pau Institute of Biomedical Research in Barcelona, are producing evidence of the plant’s potential to deal with dilemmas of consciousness that have traditionally fallen under the realm of psychotherapy, including alleviating conditions like anxiety, depression, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Many people in scientific, psychiatric, and spiritual circles are eager to see whether ayahuasca will influence the Western approach to addiction and mental illness, especially in cases where psychotherapy and pharmaceuticals alone have not been successful.

FINDING AYAHUASCA

Pilgrimages to ayahuasca’s source in the Upper Amazon are on the rise, sending Westerners deep into the jungles of Colombia, Brazil, and Peru, where the plant’s spiritual and botanical roots are indigenous and the culture is laden with shamans and ceremony. The South American ayahuasca trail finds its epicenter in the rainforest river city of Iquitos, Peru, where ayahuasca healing retreats cater to foreigners. But these retreats vary widely in quality, so if you’re thinking of traveling in search of ayahuasca, be forewarned: In this Wild West of spiritual healing, for every legitimate shaman, there is an unscrupulous charlatan vying for the dollar of the “spiritual tourist,” making research and vetting essential. There are potential risks involved in taking ayahuasca, particularly in relation to dangerous interactions with prescription drugs like antidepressants, so it’s best to avoid centers that don’t screen applicants for physical and mental wellbeing. Likewise, stay away from centers that fail to prescribe preparatory purification diets that aim to more

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fully prepare a participant’s body and mind for the experience by temporarily eliminating dietary “impurities” like pork, sugar, salts, and spices—as well as sex. Regardless of where it unfolds, no ayahuasca journey—which can trigger intense emotional, psychological, and physical responses—should be embarked upon without the guidance and support of a welltrained, trustworthy guide. Among the best-reputed options in the Iquitos area of Peru is the Temple of the Way of Light, which was the retreat center of choice this summer for Amanda Villalobos, a 36-year-old graphic designer and artist. She and her husband, a geologist, own property in Kerhonkson and plan to build a house there, but are currently residing in Brazil, where he works at a mine. During her 12-day stay at the center, Villalobos experienced seven group ceremonies, which were intermixed with a regimen of special plant and fruit remedies, massages, meditation sessions, floral baths, and yoga classes. She says she was impressed by the Temple of the Way of Light’s “strong commitment to adhere to the traditions of working with the medicine,” and its utilization of both female and male shamans from the local Shipibo community. However, it isn’t necessary to board a plane to encounter ayahuasca: There are numerous underground retreats unfolding stateside as part of an under-the-radar, word-of-

mouth subculture that reaches across the country, from tech hangouts in the Silicon Valley to yoga studios in Brooklyn and hideaways in the Hudson Valley. Although ayahuasca is illegal in the US (with DMT outlawed as a Schedule I drug), like any such illicit substance, it is regularly smuggled in. Forget the grapevine: Rest assured, you know someone who knows someone who can lead you to the ayahuasca vine locally. Musician and artist Natavi Kozicz, 31, and his business partner, Miguel Mendez, 29, a chef, yoga teacher, and healer, are both former Brooklynites who relocated to Stone Ridge in 2016, and have tapped into the Hudson Valley ayahuasca circuit—having met at an underground ceremony upstate in 2015. (Mendez has also participated in several ayahuasca sessions in a Downtown Manhattan yoga studio.) Individually, they’ve been experimenting with the plant for four years now for its curative properties. As Kozicz recounts, “We both had such a good experience that we continued to work with the plant.” Today, when requested by ayahuasca facilitators, they are collaborating on bringing elements of ceremonial sound healing sessions to regional ceremonies, which often incorporate elements of music, scent, touch, and healing. Although Kozicz and Mendez traveled to the Amazon last fall, they say trying ayahuasca back at home can be just as positive an experience. “There is no right or wrong,” says Kozicz. “There’s just a whole different context around the medicine in the jungle.”

Stone Ridgebased ayahuasca enthusiasts Natavi Kozicz (left) and Miguel Mendez incorporate sound healing sessions into regional ceremonies.

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Luis Robayo credits ayahuasca with opening up creative channels that are reflected in his ongoing artistic process.

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THE CEREMONY AND ITS AFTERMATH

Amazonian retreats like the Temple of the Way of Light typically incorporate several small-group ceremonies over several days or weeks. But in New York City and the Hudson Valley, because ayahuasca is illegal, ceremonies are frequently conducted over a single night. In either setting though, the hours-long rituals are traditionally begun at nightfall, as light is said to affect the experience, and are overseen by a shaman or group of shamans or indigenous healers known as curanderos. The ceremony begins with the shamans or curanderos purifying and setting the ceremonial stage by burning tobacco and/or sage; incorporating musical instruments; singing; and chanting icaros, or sacred ceremonial songs. Typically, the ceremony’s leaders share in drinking the psychoactive concoction—an unpleasant-tasting brownish tea—with the aim of being able to better diagnose and guide their patients. Within an hour of drinking the ayahuasca brew, an altered state of consciousness comes into play, and participants are strongly encouraged to set strong intentions for their experience, in order to avoid the rabbit holes that can pop up for nonfocused minds. The most common and least pleasant side effect is an ensuing physical—and psychic— purge, involving nausea, vomiting, and sometimes diarrhea. Typically, the ayahuasca experience ends several hours after ingestion, with users most regularly reporting feeling fatigued, hungry (as a result of fasting), and emotionally vulnerable immediately afterward. While the ayahuasca journey is never predictable, commonplace accounts of its psychological effects involve the disintegration of the ego, perceptual distortions, psychedelic visions, and the emotionally charged and vivid revisiting of repressed or traumatic memories. Some users have described mystical—and sometimes challenging or even frightening— encounters with archetypes as well as presumed spirits or interdimensional beings who may act as guides or messengers. Often shamans don’t speak English, so they employ translators to communicate with their guests, a role that Luis Robayo, a 51-year-old artist and Columbian native, played at the Sachamama Center in Lamas, Peru, for three years, before moving in 2016 from Brooklyn upstate to Bearsville, where he now resides with his wife and daughter. Robayo originally traveled to Sachamama Center to escape

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the challenging atmosphere of post-9/11 New York City. “I was depressed at that time in my life,” he recalls. But he says the Peruvian ayahuasca ceremonies “did something to my life to help me heal. My life totally changed.” When the shaman at Sachamama Center proposed that Robayo stay on as a translator and shamanic apprentice, he gladly accepted the offer. Robayo participated in approximately 150 ceremonies, during which he says he witnessed “so many transformations.” His advice for practitioners? “The most important thing is to have a clear, good intention.” For many people, the ayahuasca experience is said to be equitable in its results to years in therapy or meditation practice, providing a sense of conflict resolution that leads to catharsis, psychological purification, spiritual renewal, and the alleviation of suffering. Some users have also noted a lingering sense of euphoria, tranquility, harmony, compassion, and interconnection with the universe. So perhaps putting up with vomiting and an encounter with a grouchy spirit or two is a small price to pay for admission to this earn-what-you-learn ride—and the chance to become a better version of yourself. Adherents advise that ayahuasca’s work continues well beyond the encounter itself. “It’s like a seed that you plant inside yourself,” says Mendez. “You learn to cultivate it with your daily actions.” Villalobos, a childhood abuse survivor, turned to ayahuasca to deal with resulting lifelong anxieties. “The hallucinations weren’t as intense, it was more emotional,” she says, but notes that the journey allowed her to do transformative internal work on forgiveness and acceptance. So far, says Villalobos, the experience has paid off. “The anxiety has dissipated since,” she says. “It’s not completely gone, but it’s more subtle.” For Robayo, ayahuasca has opened up creative channels that he finds are continually being reflected in his artistic process. “I started doing a lot of drawings with memories of the trips,” he recalls. Now, he adds, the direction of his artwork work has “turned more spiritual and more in touch with nature. Before it was all over the place. Ayahuasca got me more grounded with my drawings.” Ultimately, says Villalobos, her journey was even more than what she hoped for. “I walked away feeling like everybody in the world should experience this,” she says. u

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WANDERLUST

S T O RY B Y K A R E N B I S WA S | P H O T O S B Y K A R E N A N D S I M O N B I S WA S

Road-tripping lets a couple recharge their creativity

Karen and Simon Biswas direct a dream sequence for their short film, High Desert, in the Mojave Desert. Shortly after the couple moved to Los Angeles earlier this year, their film was nominated for Best Sci-Fi Film, Best Cinematography, and Best Soundtrack at the SoCal Clips Indie Festival in Hollywood.

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hen I asked the tarot reader about selling all our stuff, leaving New York, and traveling for an undetermined length of time, she drew the Star card. “Not only will this journey be spiritually blessed and eye-opening, it will open up your world, expand your understanding of things, and bring out more centeredness and joy,” she told me. “The cards are asking you to take a moment to trust your creativity and your intuition about what it is you want to do this next year.”

I’d spent the past five years as a copywriter at a Manhattan advertising agency while my partner, Simon, directed, shot, and edited broadcast commercials. Navigating each day through the chaos of 8 million people and keeping up with the incessant work needed to make ends meet was leaving us drained and frustrated. But the tarot reader told me that North, my late grandfather, was trying to “open the heavens” to allow Simon and I to do the things we were meant to accomplish in this lifetime, and that he would protect us on our travels. The tarot reading gave us the final push to escape the city in search of deeper fulfillment and adventure. I quit my job and traded in my corporate clothes for hiking boots and camping gear. We bought a Honda Element, removed the back seat and built a platform bed in its place, loaded it with video production equipment, and set off. We were following our intuition, using the money we would have spent on a traditional wedding to fund our explorations. My wedding inheritance was North’s money, so in both ethereal and tangible ways, he was indeed assisting us from the other side. After storing our few remaining belongings in a friend’s attic outside Albany, Simon and I barreled down the East Coast to an off-the-grid farm outside Asheville, North Carolina, offering free lodging for volunteer workers through WWOOF USA (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms). We arrived at night, as snow began to fall. A man in his 70s with a wild mane of white hair led us into the library, where we would sleep that night, warmed by a fire burning in a cast-iron stove. At dawn, we awoke to golden sunlight illuminating hundreds of books—on plants, Ayurveda, sustainable living, and spirituality—and an elaborate apothecary stocked with jars of tinctures, seeds, and pods. Outside, the hillsides were dotted with solar panels, a duck pond, beehives, and beds of dormant herbs. We were shown to a cobb dome—a circular structure, made of clay, mud, and sticks, built into the hillside with a living roof covered in leaves and moss, and a tiny square window in the top. Inside, we found handmade shelves, a woodstove, and a foam mattress. There was no electricity or running water. The spare simplicity delighted us but forced us

to reevaluate our comfort levels, priorities, and needs. Within a week, we adjusted to the relaxed hygiene and daily routine of sorting seeds, raking leaves, reading by the fire, sleeping when it was dark and waking with the sun. One night, zipped into our sleeping bags, we hatched an idea to film a music video at the farm with a local indie folk band we’d seen perform in Asheville. The band, River Whyless, had recently recorded a song, “Life Crisis,” which was expected to be the hit single on their upcoming album, and they were eager to collaborate. They mused that Simon and I were having our own life crisis. But we didn’t feel at all in crisis. We were in a state of expansion and radical, positive change.

From top: Simon Biswas sets up for some roadside filming in Southern Oregon; Karen Biswas runs sound at Old Crow Tattoo in Oakland, California.

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“Our experiment’s success hinged on our ability to abandon expectations and judgment.” —KAREN BISWAS A still from the music video that NORTH + NOMAD created for River Whyless’s song “Life Crisis,” shot in North Carolina.

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Together, we created a story including two women in the woods with torches, and live owls and snakes from a local animal sanctuary, and began designing costumes and making props. We filmed for three days, and by the time we’d checked everything off our shot list, we were exhausted but overwhelmingly satisfied by having created something for the joy of it, without a boss or a paycheck. With a hard drive full of footage, we returned to the road, stretching our money by sleeping in the car and cooking over a camp stove. Our experiment’s success hinged on our ability to abandon expectations and judgment. After three and a half months on the road, which included shooting a lingerie video for a model in Austin, Texas, we arrived in Dixon, New Mexico, where a rustic solar-powered guesthouse on a garlic farm awaited us. We spent several weeks editing the music video on a laptop, repeatedly crashing it while processing the large files; walking along the river with local farm dogs; and exploring hot springs and sandstone caves carved by the artist Ra Paulette.

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We pushed on, creating more projects: a short film in the Mojave Desert, a social video for a San Francisco startup, a short documentary about an Oakland artist in return for two tattoos. Each project allowed us to streamline production and enhance our process as we developed a portfolio of work. But after 10 months of exchanging our time, energy, and equipment for places to sleep and hot meals, it was time to find a paycheck to cover our expenses and continue traveling. So, while camping out in a treehouse in the backyard of my uncle’s Long Beach, California, bungalow, we hatched the idea to transform our travel blog, NORTH + NOMAD—a tribute to my grandfather and our nomadic pilgrimage—into a video production site to allow us to look for work as a filmmaking team. Shortly afterward, a New York advertising agency invited us to bid on a yearlong mini-documentary series for Microsoft. After a series of phone calls, estimates, and proposals, we rejoiced at landing the gig—with a scant two weeks to get back to the East Coast to start filming. We considered returning to New York, hoping that this time it would be different. But the places we’d visited had granted us the mental and physical space necessary to sink our teeth into projects without distractions or a crushing overhead, and solitude and nature were now essential. Like molting snakes, we had outgrown our old skin, and squeezing back into a tiny city apartment felt like backpedaling. So we bumped down a country driveway to an A-frame cabin in Woodstock that we’d found listed online as a winter rental. With a clear view of Overlook Mountain, it became our

temporary home and artists’ retreat. Simon set up his video editing station in a corner of the living room, and I wrote in the guest room while watching chipmunks and deer in the backyard. From Woodstock, we drove to New York City for shoots or hopped on planes with our gear en route to assignments in Miami or Portland, Durham or Dallas. Living in Brooklyn, we had become disconnected from the natural world. In the Catskills, we found the wilderness we’d been seeking on our wayfaring journey across America. When our lease was up in Woodstock, we found another country home in nearby Hurley to use as our base for the following winter and spring. Our upstate respite brought peace and

balance to our lives, and provided a much-needed incubation period, letting us catch our breath, build our company, test new systems, dream up new projects, and find like-minded clients around the country. Operating as nomads has taught us to be low-maintenance, adaptable, and comfortable in diverse scenarios as we chase opportunities to create beautiful stories and explore new ways of living. Last spring, after three years of living in other people’s spaces, and two snowy winters in the woods, we road-tripped back to California, the land of sunshine and palm trees. It’s time to emerge from our solitude, find a new community, and make a home once again. u

Clockwise from top: Shooting on Mount Hood in Oregon; Simon Biswas relaxing at the couple’s temporary home in Hurley, near Woodstock; Karen Biswas at Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California.

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DESIGN

S T O RY B Y M A RY A N G E L E S A R M S T R O N G | P H O T O S B Y R O Y G U M P E L

PRINT YOUR OWN HOME

Architect Adam Kushner believes 3-D printing will revolutionize both home ownership and architecture, and he hopes to lead the charge.

hroughout history, architectural innovations have fundamentally changed the way humans live. The development of aqueducts and plumbing in ancient Rome reduced the spread of disease by transporting wastewater out and clean water in, letting cities thrive. During the late 19th century, the invention of the elevator allowed American cities to grow vertically and with greater density, creating the modern metropolis. And in the early 20th century, automobiles helped cities spread horizontally, precipitating the birth of suburbs and changing the face of America. 40 upstater

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Now Manhattan architect and contractor Adam Kushner believes largescale 3-D printing will create the next big paradigm shift, ultimately allowing anyone, anywhere, to use natural materials to build a house. Invented by Italian designer Enrico Dini in 2005, the D-Shape 3-D printer uses computer software and an approximately 10-foot-by-15-foot, two-story machine to create complex shapes out of ingredients like sand. The technology is nothing short of revolutionary, says Kushner, who has designed and built a variety of conventional homes and apartments, as well as commercial spaces. Throughout his career, he has been interested in the intersection between art and science. “Large-scale 3-D printing redefines being a contractor, it redefines being an architect, it redefines who gets to build,” he says. “It will no longer be a privilege [to build]; everyone is going to be able to produce their own shelter in some way.” Kushner has also partnered with green entrepreneur Dan Bernard and investor Mark Lazar; together they form D-Shape’s American branch. D-Shape’s first American project is an ambitious one: to design the world’s first 3-D-printed estate on land in Gardiner, a small town in southern3D Ulster printingCounty. machine in Kushner discovered Gardiner as a college student at Rensselaerville action.

Institute at the University of Albany, and regularly spent weekends rock climbing in the Shawangunk Mountains. In 2002, Kushner and his family became weekend residents of Kerhonkson, across the Shawangunk Ridge; 10 years later, he bought a five-acre parcel of land in Gardiner at the foot of the Millbrook Range, some of the Shawangunks’ tallest cliffs. A year later, Kushner stumbled into the world of largescale 3-D printing online via the 3-D Print Canal House, an exhibition, research, and building site for 3-D printing architecture made from bioplastic (biodegradable plastic derived from biological substances rather than petroleum) in 2016 by the Dutch architects DUS in Amsterdam. Until then, 3-D printing technology had mostly been done on a smaller, tabletop scale, using plastic and occasionally metal or ceramics to print everything from bookends to artificial limbs. Large-scale 3-D printing performs the same layer-bylayer printing process, but utilizes electric stepper motors and up to 300 nozzles to build large-scale projects that are increasingly complex. While the 3-D printing machine can be adapted to utilize a variety of materials, it was especially designed to transform organic materials like sand and salt water into concrete shapes. Kushner quickly realized the technology could be adapted to a much broader scale. “It just sang to me,” he recalls. He realized he’d come across something important with a potential that had not been fully comprehended. “There are about six companies in the world with this technology, and we are the only ones in America who have gotten a permit to actually build a real structure using the 3-D process,” he says. If things go as planned, Kushner and his team will be the first people in the US to have created

an entire estate, including a house, pool, and outbuildings, through large-scale 3-D printing. But first Kushner needed to obtain a building permit from the Town of Gardiner, which was no small task. There was no classification for this type of construction in the building codes, so he had to explain his vision to the permit office. Eventually, Kushner was granted a permit based on his extensive experience and the fact that the property will be owner-occupied. The next step was getting the machine shipped from Dini’s manufacturing and printing facility in Pisa, Italy, to Brooklyn in the fall of 2016. That’s when former set designer and theater technician Stanley Zabecki and his assistant Steve Bernard stepped in to handle the daily on-site operations. Self-described “tinkerers,” they both have a passion “for taking things apart and putting them back together in weird ways,” explains Bernard. Using their “unlimitations,” as Zabecki puts it, to their advantage, they spent the better part of last winter adapting the machine to suit their needs. Zebecki, who now lives onsite in a trailer, and Bernard, who lives down the road, have continued to adapt the machine and experiment. “We don’t have tons of money—if we think the machine needs something we either make it, modify it, invent something new, or devise a workaround,” Zebecki explains. “The machine doesn’t really look like it did six months ago—it’s evolved.” Kushner agrees. “We’ve already improved the machine 30 percent since we got it,” he says. “Everything we are doing is meant to be replicated on a global scale.” The goal is not only to create new construction methods that can be easily replicated, but also to reduce the environmental impact of construction

Opposite: Architect Adam Kushner walks the site of D-Shape’s American branch. Above: Plans for Kushner’s 3-D-printed estate, currently being developed in Gardiner; the D-Shape team’s 3-D printer.

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The D-Shape team runs the 3-D printing apparatus in a temporary shelter constructed on site.

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by creating new ways to build from readily available organic materials. By adding saltwater to a mixture of magnesium and sand, Kushner and his team are using the printer to create concrete comparable to calcite or dolomite in a matter of hours. The simplicity of the ingredients is intentional— saltwater, magnesium, and sand are among the Earth’s most prevalent materials. (The team is also experimenting with sawdust and other easily accessible organic materials.) If the technology succeeds, people will be able to “literally dig up the earth below them and use it to print,” says Kushner. This would not only democratize construction by reducing transportation and material costs, but it would also greatly reduce its environmental impact. The majority of concrete in the world today is made from Portland cement, the heating and creation of which emits massive amounts of carbon dioxide. As it “cures” over its lifetime, conventional concrete continues to emit carbon dioxide. But magnesium, sand, and saltwater are all inert and completely organic, and so far the blocks created and tested by the D-Shape team emit little to no carbon. Zabecki believes that it’s even possible to produce concrete that will absorb carbon dioxide as it cures. Kushner plans to use the developing technology to build a 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom house, along with an onsite pool and cabana. The team has begun excavating the pool site and plans to begin laying panels for the pool this fall. The project is still somewhat conceptual, with the site functioning as a laboratory. But Kushner envisions a domeshaped main house with similar surrounding architecture, all

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of it dotted with skylights. “Concrete works most effectively and efficiently as a dome,” he says. What he describes as the “open but enclosed, enclosed and yet open” design responds to the natural surroundings, showcasing views of the nearby cliffs and creating a structure that thrives in all four seasons. Small, tight spaces with outward facing decks will allow for heat conservation and showcase the winter views. Larger, open spaces will allow residents to enjoy the warmer summer months. Kushner plans to make the home carbon neutral by adding solar cells and possibly wind power. The D-Shape team is adjusting the house’s design as they discover the possibilities of the new technology. At this point, they have the technology to build a one-story structure. One of their current challenges, says Kushner, is to create rebar, or structural reinforcement, for the concrete. “The minute we can figure out [how to create] rebar we won’t be limited to one- or two-story structures,” he explains. The team is also working to develop building blocks that can withstand the high water pressure of a pool, and has utilized the concretetesting facility at the University of New Hampshire, where they’ve also been storing equipment in winter, to measure their progress. Since beginning experiments last spring, the team has progressed from creating concrete blocks that can withstand 800 pounds of pressure per square inch to blocks that can withstand 4,800 pounds per square inch. In comparison, standard, commercially available concrete can withstand approximately 3,000 pounds of pressure per square inch, while high-strength classified concrete can withstand 5,000 pounds per square inch. The team has the support and expertise of the nearby materials lab at SUNY New Paltz. “SUNY New Paltz has one of the largest 3-D printing labs in the country, with over 30 MakerBot machines,” says Kushner. “It’s been great to have them so close—I’ve given lectures there and they’ve been a sounding board for information and advice.” Kushner sees multiple possible applications for large-scale 3-D printing technology. Because it provides the ability to print on site and on demand, using readily available materials, the technology could be used to create refugee housing, military bunkers, and temporary shelter in disaster zones as well as to repair pylons, bridges, and other large-scale infrastructure. Zabecki envisions a large-scale 3-D printing machine that can be rolled from one area to the next, printing houses from local materials in one continuous piece. Everyone involved with the project sees the technology’s potential to build lunar bases, solving the problem of creating human habitats in space. In fact, Dini is partnering with the European Space Agency and architects Foster + Partners to test this idea, utilizing magnesium oxide to simulate lunar dust. The technology could also be used to address environmental degradation. Dini has already used it to build homes for fish—artificial coral reefs printed from sand—and in partnership with the Dutch dredging company Boskalis, he has successfully launched the reefs off the coast of Monaco, where they have been accepted and inhabited by Mediterranean sealife. Kushner even foresees a day, five to 10 years from now, when a building—and its furnishings, cabinetry, plumbing, and even electrical components—can be printed on demand. “We can do designs that are unimaginable and can’t be created with any other methodology,” he says. But the project is about much more than being first people to build an estate using this technology. “It still has not sunk in just how big what we are doing is,” Zabecki says. “We’re living in the woods and working on an invention that will eventually change the world. I can’t believe I’m part of it.” But Kushner explains his motivation even more simply: “I want to leave the world a better place.” u

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AT HOME

S T O RY A N D P H O T O S B Y H I L L A RY H A RV E Y

The Art of the View

ARTISTS DESIGN THEIR OWN LIVE/WORK SPACE FOR AN ADAPTIVE-REUSE PROJECT.

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rtists Neville Bean and Harris Diamant fell in love with the Rondout Creek Bridge in Kingston’s Rondout Historic District during the winter of 2015. They were standing before the large windows of 50 Abeel Street, looking out at Kingston’s waterfront. The old brick building was raw and gutted at the time. Bean remembers viewing the dramatic sweep of the 1921 steel suspension bridge, which connects Kingston with Port Ewen, and thinking, “Whatever they do in here, that view of the bridge is the thing.” Thus began a collaboration between the artists and the building’s developer and architect on a tailored live/work space for two. Bean is a designer whose work encompasses jewelry and graphic design, product development, trends presentations, and advertising props construction; Diamant is a sculptor, builder, and pioneering American folk art dealer who discovered an important collection of drawings by outsider artist Edward Deen. The couple collaborated on a monograph and mini-documentary, The Electric Pencil, about Deen’s life and work. Bean and Diamant were among the first tenants to contract for an apartment at 50 Abeel Street, renamed Rondout Mews. “We were on the verge of losing our studio space in Chelsea,” Diamant explains. “We began investigating towns, mostly in the Hudson Valley, because we have friends here.” Moving from their railroad apartment in New York City’s West Village and shared studio in Chelsea, the couple combined their home and workspace in Kingston. Like many buildings in its neighborhood, Rondout Mews has led many lives. Built in 1892 with bricks made at the nearby Hutton Brickyards, the building was home to Temple Emmanuel until 1958. A circular stained-glass window was removed in the 1990s and steel beams were installed to create a dance floor for a bar. Eventually, the building sat empty for about a decade until Kingston developer Mike Piazza bought it for an adaptive-reuse project. Piazza retrofitted the building into seven apartments, three of which feature outdoor areas. “We tried to work with the building structure as much as possible,” says project architect Paul Jankovitz. “Every unit is unique because of the original layout of the building.” While exploring the idea of Bean and Diamant renting two apartments at Rondout Mews, Piazza offered them the option of creating a duplex or conjoining two side-by-side, mirrorimage apartments. The couple liked the latter idea, which meant eliminating stairs from their lives and having the deck outside the two apartments all to themselves. During the year it took to build Rondout Mews, Bean and Diamant frequently took the bus upstate to offer suggestions, including tile colors for the radiant-heat flooring and a deep tub for one bathroom. They also requested shower rails, and Piazza provided a fully American Disabilities Act-compliant second bathroom. To combine the two apartments, open space was left between the two living rooms, and a reinforced wall was built around one area, with additional power and specialty lighting installed, to create Diamant’s studio. Bean’s studio is located in place of one apartment’s kitchen—it has all of the necessary plumbing installed, but a studio sink is the only appliance hooked up. The live/work space could easily be converted back into two apartments. The space’s main entrance, on the deck’s southern end, leads to a foyer and open-plan kitchen with an island

Opposite: Rondout Mews, a renovated residential building in downtown Kingston, was adapted from a former synagogue. The Tables of the Law, numbering the Ten Commandments, remain on the facade. From top: Artists Neville Bean and Harris Diamant at home in their kitchen at Rondout Mews, with historic postcards of the Rondout Creek Bridge displayed on the wall behind them; a birdfeeder enhances the view of the bridge; children play outside of the abandoned Temple Emmanuel in 2014, prior to its redevelopment as Rondout Mews.

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overlooking the dining area. Two large windows—lined with folk art, plants, and one of Diamant’s handmade lamps— provide views of the bridge. The dining area opens into the living space, created by the two apartments’ conjoined living rooms. Work stations line two walls, with deep window ledges showcasing Diamant’s sculptures. The third wall is outfitted with a table showcasing one of Diamant’s large sculptural heads, and a photo light and backdrop allow him to create a photography studio when needed. The remaining space features two vintage theater chairs and a table made by Diamant. Twin hallways lead into two bathrooms and two bedrooms. Bean’s workspace completes the circle back to the front deck, and another picture window, also looking toward the bridge, displays her line of handmade jewelry, One. Throughout the apartment are displayed vintage postcards of the bridge, Bean’s pottery, folk art, and Diamant’s sculptures, carefully lit with track lighting. Diamant designed and built much of the furniture himself, and there are artful displays of vintage functional collectibles throughout, including cast-iron pans in the kitchen and hats in the bedroom. With curated objects at every turn, the space feels as much like an art gallery as it does an art studio. “My goal here was to show Harris’s work,” says Bean. Jankovitz “did such a beautiful job creating this fresh space with touches of the original exposed brick and beams,” she adds. The exposed steel beams offer extra exhibition space. As a developer, Piazza specializes in adaptive-reuse projects, often gearing his properties toward housing for artists and makers: He’s created live/work facilities at the Shirt Factory, the Pajama Factory, and the Kingston Brush Factory in Kingston’s Midtown Arts District; currently, he is converting a former factory in the Rondout into Creekside Terrace apartments for artists and their families. “Lately we’ve been focused on more upscale tenants, with a good portion who are downsizing, or others coming out of urban areas to appreciate what Kingston has to offer,” Piazza says. Jankovitz frequently designs Piazza’s projects. “The nice thing about working with artists is that they’re willing to take chances,” he says. “Once a couple of artists come into the building, they work together, and there’s synergy there. It’s a great environment to work in—lively, energetic.” Yet there’s plenty of privacy at Rondout Mews. With separate entrances into each apartment, the building’s atmosphere feels small scale. “There’s a real sense of history here,” says Bean. Diamant and Bean are especially fond of their deck, which is enclosed by a stockade-style fence. Bean established a garden on one side of the building, and she and Diamant planted trees on the other side to define the green space and decrease its exposure to the historic Company Hill Path, which runs alongside the building; in the process, they’ve created a miniature park. “Having a garden is such a cool thing for us city dwellers,” says Diamant. “In New York, we were 50 feet in the air.” People regularly use the path for exercise, dog walking, or as a shortcut to waterfront restaurants, and they’re often curious about Rondout Mews, having known the building in one its previous lifetimes or watched its renovation. Since Diamant and Bean spend a lot of time on their deck, grilling dinner and relaxing, they frequently chat with passersby, sharing the building’s history. Occasionally, the couple is even asked for permission to walk down the path by visitors who don’t realize it’s a public area, and Diamant, who has a wry sense of humor, jokes that he always grants it. “There’s community here like none I’ve ever experienced,” he says. “People are so much easier to engage in Kingston.” u

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Clockwise from top left: Bean and Diamant are especially fond of their deck, which fronts onto historic Company Hill Path and spans the width of their double entrances; the dining room features modernist furniture, Diamant’s artwork, and collected folk art; Diamant’s studio was added to the original apartment design concept and outfitted with an added wall, specialty lighting, and extra power capabilities; one of the deck’s quirky collectibles; Bean and Diamant frequently dine al fresco.

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ON • THE• MARKET BROUGHT TO YOU

POSTS

BY UPSTATER.COM Find new On-the-Market posts every day at upstater.com. BY K A N DY H A R R I S

t Upstater.com, we cross the line between “love” and “obsessed with” when it comes to real estate—so our On-theMarket posts go live every day. We scour the internet and drive the streets to bring you the best-of-the-best houses on the market (although “best-of-the-best” is, of course, subjective). Our content runs the gamut, from “Five-Figure Fridays” (great homes under $99,000) to “More Than a Mill.” We also cover handyman specials, easy fixer-uppers, turnkey-move-in-ready homes, weekend escapes, country cottages, and grand estates.

A Stylish Little Bargain

Victorian Knockout

Gothic Brick Church

7 Broadway, Loch Sheldrake

41 Clearwater Street, Hillsdale

21 Fitch Street, Kingston

Keller Williams Realty

Gary DiMauro Real Estate

Coldwell Banker Village Green Realty

$90,000

$279,000

$489,900

BEDS: 2 BATHS: 1.5 SQUARE FEET: 924 LOT SIZE: .13 ACRES TAXES: $3,218

BEDS: 3 BATHS: 1.5 SQUARE FEET: 1,900 LOT SIZE: .24 ACRE TAXES: $3,418

SQUARE FEET: 6,500 LOT SIZE: .10 ACRES TAXES: $10,349

The hamlet of Loch Sheldrake is situated around a lake bearing the same name, about six miles from Liberty in Sullivan County. It’s the kind of place where neighbors hang out at the corner store in the morning, catching up on the news while refilling their coffee cups. If that sounds like your cup of tea (or coffee), this inexpensive, turnkey cottage might be your new home. Finding a turnkey property for under $100,000 anywhere is a feat in and of itself, but one that’s had a stylish, top-to-bottom renovation featuring vaulted ceilings, a new stainless-steel kitchen, a cut-stone fireplace, hardwood floors, and an extra half-bath? That’s next to impossible, making this cottage a real find. It also includes a back deck that’s big enough to host great cookouts in the summertime. This is the Catskills, after all, so when in Rome… The lot size is but a postage stamp, but there is some side yard. Prepare to get friendly with your new neighbors.

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This Columbia County property is located in the hamlet of Hillsdale at the juncture of Routes 22 and 23, 10 minutes from the entrance to the Taconic State Parkway, making this location ideal for someone who needs to commute to New York City or Massachusetts from time to time. Both the Berkshires and the Catskills are accessible from here, and the property is within walking distance to local businesses, shops, and cafes. And the house itself is a serious knockout. The c.1890 Victorian home has been recently renovated and features central air conditioning, a gas furnace, new windows, roof, refinished hardwood floors, and built-in cabinetry and shelves. Keep cozy next to the living room’s wood stove, and enjoy the company of friends and family with a dining room open to the kitchen. The quarter-acre includes a cedar-fenced backyard perfect for kids and pets, with room leftover for a couple of garden beds. Feels like home already, doesn’t it?

Behold this stunning 19th-century brick church, located off Abeel Street on the Rondout Creek in downtown Kingston, Ulster County. Zoned for commercial/ industrial use, the cavernous space is currently a textile works, but could become darn near anything that requires lots of room. It’s located in a mostly industrial area though, so don’t expect quite the same walkable village vibe you get from the Strand neighborhood, less than three minutes’ drive away. Aside from the church’s intriguing location, the building itself is striking for its original brick, stained-glass windows, rafters, and stonework. Imagine preserving this historic beauty and making it your next enterprise, all in one go. Tempting, indeed. This is one of Kingston’s most charming areas, where remnants of its industrial past rub elbows with 19th-century residential architecture. This area—situated among the rocky outcroppings that cradle the city’s southern to eastern ends along the Hudson River—contains hidden pockets of charming homes, warehouses, storefronts, and fascinating landscape. This Gothic church fits right in. R E A L E S TA T E S E C T I O N

COMPOUNDED CHARM

Whimsical Family Farm 14 Chapel Road, Waccabuc Houlihan Lawrence

$1,950,000 BEDS: 5 BATHS: 5.5 SQUARE FEET: 2,300 LOT SIZE: 5.79 ACRES TAXES: $22,379.38

Â Incredibly, this bucolic setting is just an hour north of Midtown Manhattan in Westchester County: An 1820s Victorian farm compound awaits, complete with a farmhouse, two-bedroom guest house, 1860s pole barn, outdoor shower, and hot tub. The main house has been recently updated and includes a rocking chair porch and an eye-catching cupola. The living room and dining room both have wood stoves, and the kitchen is outfitted with marble countertops and stainless steel appliances. Invite your tribe up for a visit, and host them in the sleek, modern guest house. Or spread out into the barn, which features exposed wooden beams galore, an office/studio space, and a kitchenette. Situated on acreage dotted with gardens, grape arbors, stone pathways, private dining terraces, and a fire pit, this place is a slice of paradise!

R E A L E S TA T E S E C T I O N

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180 ACRE FARM – Five separate parcels being sold as one glorious farm estate. Grand old Victorian beauty with pristine millwork and period details lovingly cared for over the years. Pastures, a pond, and hay fields are all part of the charm. WILLIAM FLOOD, Associate Real Estate Broker. WEB# UM1410661 | GERMANTOWN | $1,895,000

TRANQUIL VIEWS – A zen-like peace wraps around you listening to the waterfall into the Japanese water garden and heated swimming pond and drink in the sunset behind the 100 mile, 180 degree Catskill Mountain view. KATHERINE JENNINGS, Associate Real Estate Broker. WEB# UM1404800 | CANAAN | $1,400,000

DRUMLIN FARM – Rare opportunity to own an 8.7 acre mini estate. Designed in the style of Andrew Downing the 1850s six bedroom home sits majestically amidst gardens and patios overlooking orchards and beautiful views of the Hudson River. ELIZABETH SANTANDER, Real Estate Salesperson. WEB# UM1406594 | MARLBOROUGH | $799,000

MILLBROOK BROKERAGE 845.677.6161 HOULIHANLAWRENCE.COM

THE FUTURE OF REAL ESTATE PROVEN AND PROVING IT 50 upstater

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R E A L E S TA T E S E C T I O N

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The John o’Brien residence A SECOND EMPIRE VICTORIAN RHINEBECK, NEW YORK

ON MANSION ROW - AllEN STREET | HUdSON, NY Excl. | $1,950,000 | 8 BR, 10 BATH | Web#15084984

Landmark c1875 home in the heart of the Village features vintage details including moldings, wood floors, marble fireplaces and light fixtures with stylish, contemporary accents. Offers over 5000 s.f. on 3 levels and includes a chef ’s kitchen with local quarried marble, formal parlors, master en suite with elegant gas fireplace and bath. There are 5 aadtl. bedrooms and 3.5 baths. The property also has a carriage barn. Walk to fine dining, theater, and farmers’ market. Minutes to Amtrak and Bard’s Fisher Center. Offered at $1,695,000.

H.H. HILL REALTY SERVICES, INC. 845.876.8888 • HILLRHINEBECK.COM RIVERTOWN - VICTORIAN & GUEST HOUSE | ATHENS, NY Excl. | $644,334 | 5 BR, 3 BATH | Web#16748403

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An Inspired Home & Decor Quarterly

1850 MEAdE FARM - HISTORICAl PURITY | AMENIA, NY Excl. | $695,000 | 4 BR, 1 BATH | Web#17009941 Nancy Felcetto Lic. Assoc. R.E. Broker, Halstead Property Hudson Valley, LLC

t: 917.626.6755 | neh@halstead.com Robin Horowitz Lic. Assoc. R.E. Broker, Halstead Property Hudson Valley, LLC

t: 518.660.1302 | rhorowitz@halstead.com 5 2 6 W a r r e n S t r e e t, H u d S o n , n Y 1 2 5 3 4

Halstead Property Hudson Valley, LLC All information is from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, change or price, prior sale or withdrawal without notice. No representation or guaranty is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and other information should be re-conﬁrmed by customer. All New York Yankees trademarks and copyrights are owned by the New York Yankees and used with the permission of the New York Yankees.

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Subscribe for home delivery today: upstatehouse.com/subscribe

R E A L E S TA T E S E C T I O N

Rhinebeck’s sepascoT home FaRm An historically significant organic farm on 96 sprawling, fertile acres with an Italianate Victorian and a vintage barn complex. Offered at $1,875,000

P Spacious modern loft like home newly renovated w/over 3500 sq. ft. of living space. Vaulted ceilings, HWF, 2 FP, 5 BR & 3 BA. Plus a library, media roo screen, central air, new kitchen, modern lighting fixtures & a 2-car garage. All on 5-AC w/a pond.

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Spacious Elegance with Amazing River Frontage in Gardiner, NY Spacious Elegance with Amazing River Frontage in Gardiner, NY

bedrooms,44baths, baths,22bedroom bedroom guest/nanny guest/nanny apartment apartment 44bedrooms, 1/2car cargarage, garage,44stall stall barn barn or or studio studio 221/2 Privatelyset setway wayback backfrom fromaadead deadend end road, road,with with river river frontage frontage Privately Mastersuite, suite,extensive extensivedecking, decking,bright bright sun sun room. room. Master MLS20172923 20172923$995,000 $995,000 MLS

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R E A L E S TA T E S E C T I O N

CONTACT our A&P Bar and Restaurant

ADVERTISERS Glennâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wood Sheds

glennssheds.com / 845-328-0447

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Atlantic Custom Homes

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hudsonvalleycedarhomes.com / 845-265-2636

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halstead.com / 212-381-6554 / 917-348-4866

HH Hill Realty Services

hillrhinebeck.com / 845-876-8888

Historic Huguenot Street

huguenotstreet.org / 845-255-1660

Houlihan Lawrence / Millbrook Office houlihanlawrence.com / 845-677-6161

buttermilkfallsinn.com / 845-795-1310

Houlihan Lawrence / Lagrangeville Office Catskill Case Study

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peggylampman.com / 518-851-2277

visitputnam.org

Quatrefoil

quatrefoil.us / 845-773-9234

Stewart Airport, Port Authority NY-NJ

www.panynj.gov/airports/stewart.html / 845-838-8200

Ulster County Office of Economic Development ulsterforbusiness.com

Upstate House upstatehouse.com

catskillcasestudy.com / 718.369.1776

Hudson Valley Home Source Catskill Farms Builders thecatskillfarms.com / 845-557-3600

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Emerson Resort & Spa

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CLOSURE

S T O RY B Y J E N D O L L | I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y J I M M A X I M O W I C Z

OPEN FOR BUSINESS T

here comes a moment in every relationship when you have to put it all on the table. With the man I met this past spring at a friend’s house in Kingston, that moment arrived earlier than expected. Our meeting was auspicious, involving Tequila shots, a Harry Styles singalong, and a late-night car make-out. Two nights later, we sat next to each other in a dark bar, sipping red wine. I was only in town for another day. There was no point in being coy, I’d fallen asleep in this guy’s car already. So I said it. “Do you think you can actually date someone who lives in … Brooklyn?” “Well,” he said, “why don’t we just see what happens?” I wasn’t sure that was the answer I was looking for, but I nodded. After all, it was really the only thing we could do. And his response was wiser than my actions had been on the night we’d met, at least with regard to the Tequila shots. But I couldn’t help being a little bit wild. He’d walked into the room where I was sitting with my friends, and I’d set my eyes on him and registered a surprising, exhilarating thought: This is a person I want to know better. I wasn’t looking for anyone. Last winter, I was dumped by my former boyfriend as we were about to fly to Miami for a romantic vacation. I went on the vacation anyway, and aside from some angry texting and his mailing me back some books with a Post-It note attached, we hadn’t communicated since. I’d gone through the writerly phases of grief: from denial to rage to publishing an essay about it. But I still hadn’t quite moved on. Just as there’s a moment to share your truth—what you want and need—with the person you’re dating, there comes a moment after every breakup when, despite having vowed never to love again— because loving is impossible and only ends in pain, and what’s the point of anything anyway?—you see someone else and maybe even speak to them and whoa, wait a second. It’s undeniable: A little piece of you that was presumed dead has shown itself to be very much alive. Everyone who’s been dumped knows this moment will come eventually, even if it seems impossible to contemplate at our most broken hearted. Humans are resilient creatures, and most of us love again. My apartment building in Brooklyn is across from a very good bodega, where the employees greet you effusively and tell you they haven’t seen you for a while, even if they just saw you yesterday. Every night, when the bodega closes, the sound of its metal grate coming

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down to protect the eggs and overpriced packaged foods and milk and cat food and actual bodega cat reverberates down the block. That sound, wafting through my open windows as I sleep at night, is comforting, giving the world around me a kind of order, but after my last breakup, it took on greater meaning. Thinking someone loves you one day and realizing he doesn’t the next is enough to make you swear off dating completely—to latch your bodega grate shut without a sign of it ever budging, keeping all your vulnerable emotions safely protected inside. Though I’d downloaded Tinder to my phone and flipped through the options, often in a state of amused despair—why did so many men include pictures of teddy bears in their profiles?—I simply wasn’t open for business. “My bodega grate is down,” I told friends who asked how I was doing, and they’d laugh. When I met this new guy I detected a tiny internal creak that indicated movement in the bodega grate. A rattling. Maybe the grate was on the way up again, or at least the latches were being unlocked. But would my heart be safe with this person? One meeting wasn’t enough for me to tell. So that night at the bar, I asked logistical questions as a way of determining safety without bringing in the word heart: How would we navigate an upstate/downstate relationship? Was there any use trying? Was I actually going to start taking the bus? That was another something I’d sworn off since dating a guy in New York City while I was in college in D.C.—a relationship that had resulted in the slamming down of the bodega grate for at least six months. “Why don’t we just see what happens?” could seem like a way to brush off my question. But this new guy took me to his house that night and held me as we slept. The next morning, he made me coffee with milk he foamed himself before driving me back to my friend’s house. The guys I’d seen on Tinder really couldn’t compare to this upstate man who had raspberries growing in his yard, took care of people for a living, understood and didn’t laugh when I told him about my bodega grate and how I needed to take things creakily slow, and asked for my number and then actually texted me. He was already planning to drive two hours to see me the following weekend. “Can you date someone who lives in … Brooklyn?” I’d asked, but the question had really been whether I could date someone at all. Was I ready? It appeared that not only had my bodega grate lifted, but the lights in the store were on, and they were serving breakfast sandwiches. u

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