The Mountains 2nd Anniversary Fall Preview Issue- 2024

{ 2ND ANNiVERSARY EDiTiON } • FALL PREVIEW

WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL TURNS

How Meira Blaustein keeps bringing Hollywood here BY ISABELLA JOSLIN

BILL KRAMER ESCAPE FROM LA

Diva. Legend. Icon. The Queen Of Broadway at the peak of her powers. Yes, please BY RICHARD PÉREZ-FERIA

The Oscars’ CEO finds love, peace and magic in Hillsdale BY KEVIN SESSUMS

NOVOGRATZ STYLE

The design geniuses from their Great Barrington HQ BY EDUARDO RODRÍGUEZ AND HERMAN VEGA

NIGEL BARKER SHAKEN NOT STIRRED

The star photographer’s can’t-miss boozy launch BY TODD PLUMMER

WE’RE CUCKOO FOR KLOCKE

Why everyone is so obsessed with this place BY HAL RUBENSTEIN

DIA BEACON’S BIG BIRTHDAY

The go-to art spot celebrates its 50th with film director

Steve McQueen’s work BY DAN KODAY

Photography by Martha Swope

Photography by Douglas Friedman (Courtesy of Pa i LuPone)

We can smell fall coming weeks before it arrives, right, mountaineers? The crisp, shorter days. The windy, sweater nights. The season we all secretly love the most (apples! pumpkins! leaf peeping!) is upon us and that also means the commencement of important events.

As always, your favorite magazine is here to provide a jam-packed fall preview to help you make sense of the full calendar ahead. More than ever, it remains so much cooler in The Mountains

You are here. We are, too.

Art by Jan Kallwejt exclusively for The Mountains

Boston

Alan Katz FOUNDER | CEO

Richard Pérez-Feria EDITOR IN CHIEF

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kathleen Gates

MANAGING EDITOR James Long

PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Erika Phenner

SENIOR EDITOR | RESEARCH DIRECTOR Sarah Carpenter

DESIGN EDITORS Eduardo Rodríguez, Herman Vega

DIGITAL | SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Isabella Joslin

DESIGNER Linda Gates

EDITORS AT LARGE Martha Frankel, Jane Larkworthy, Marco Medrano

Hal Rubenstein, Kevin Sessums, Tara Solomon

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Toni Gerunda

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Greg Calejo, Kate Doyle Hooper, Anthony Giglio

Rebecca Hardiman, Bill Henning, Isabel Hochman

Sean McAlindin, Simon Murray, Todd Plummer

Melissa Reid, Jack Rico, Mitch Rustad

WRITERS Abbe Aronson, Jonah Bayliss, Bill Cary

Renee Jermaine, Sandy MacDonald

Mira Peck, Robyn Perry Coe, Terry Rosen

PHOTOGRAPHERS | ARTISTS Quentin Bacon, Fahnon Bennett, Natalie Chitwood

David Cowles, Bryan Derballa, Douglas Friedman

Jan Kallwejt, Daniella Murray, Robert Risko

Mike Ruiz, Beth Schneck

Amy Smith

EXECUTIVE SALES DIRECTOR

ACCOUNT DIRECTORS Barbara Bank, Libby Hall Abeel

ACCOUNT MANAGER Livi Perrone

FINANCE AND OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Caryn Whitman

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Betsy Low

MARKETING DIRECTOR Bill Gibbons

MARKETING STRATEGIST Randi MacColl

TEXAS SALES DIRECTORS Ellen Lewis, Michael Stafford

LEWIS STAFFORD COMPANY, INC

CANADA SALES DIRECTORS Lori Dodd, Bob Dodd DODD MEDIA GROUP

PRODUCTION Digital Workflow Solutions

advertising inquiries: advertising@themountainsmedia.com editorial submissions: editorial@themountainsmedia.com follow us on social media: @themountainsmedia The Mountains

THE team

QUENTIN BACON

Photographer Quentin Bacon, born and raised in Australia, has lived in New York City for two-and-a-half decades and commutes to Monterey, MA in the Berkshires. Bacon has worked for Australia’s Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue Living, shooting fashion, travel, interiors, portraits and food around the world. Closer to home, his work has appeared in Gourmet, Food & Wine and New York as well as hundreds of specialty publications, including cookbooks for Michelle Obama, Ina Garten, Matty Matheson and Gordon Ramsay. When on location for The Mountains, Bacon says, “Bill [Kramer] and Peter [Cipkowski] were such a pleasure to work with, so relaxed and down-to-earth. I loved hearing about Peter’s childhood memories in the Berkshires. They made my job so easy. Seconds after I had arrived and not quite set up,

(a.k.a. Hudson Valley and the Berkshires) like one of the wild geese. Not only do we have a world-class film festival, FilmColumbia, happening on Main Street in Chatham every October, but there’s a sophisticated conversation happening all around us in dance, visual art, music, writing, world-class museums—in this gorgeous natural setting where there is so much grass, people eat dinner on it.” Perry Coe is working on her second novel.

Peter had taken comfort with their dog lounging on the floor in the entrance to the dining room. ‘Don’t move!’ were my first words I said to him, ‘You’re perfect just there!’”

Chickasaw writer Robyn Perry Coe covered the contemporary art market in Los Angeles and New York for Artillery Magazine before moving to the mountains in 2007. “I homed in on the Mohican Homeland

KEVIN SESSUMS

Kevin Sessums, a former executive editor of Andy Warhol’s Interview and longtime contributing editor at Vanity Fair as well as the author of The New York Times bestsellers Mississippi Sissy and I Left It On The Mountain, now writes the Substack column SES/SUMS IT UP Currently traveling throughout the world, Sessums is on a pilgrimage which began in many ways when he lived in Hudson for five years.

Here, Sessums is having lunch at the end of the summer in the Medina in Tunis before heading to Tangiers for three months.

“Bill Kramer and his husband Peter Cipkowski make their own pilgrimage Upstate from LA where they also live,” he says.

“Hillsdale holds a spiritual allure for them because of the history of their home they still call Dooryard, which was first named after a Walt Whitman poem in the 1920s, when it was part of a close-knit colony of likeminded women.”

ROBYN PERRY COE

Fall

the first time i heard the word “adulting” not so long ago, I immediately harkened back to my pre-teen years and assumed the definition of the term was simply behaving like a grown-up. And if that was indeed the meaning of the latest, vaguely annoying, quasi-millennial recasting of long-held, perfectly fine words, then, yes, I definitely associated adulting activities as things we do in the fall.

My (and Beyoncé’s) September 4 birthday always seemed to land on Labor Day weekend, the understood end of our endless summer. My summers growing up were filled with scant responsibilities, save playing competitive tennis for ten hours a day. But my tennis playing was still very much in the carefree-child realm. When my friends would gather to celebrate me every year, it would also mean we were probably out shopping earlier that day with our moms for our back-to-school supplies and clothes. So, yeah, my annual celebrations marked my special day as well as triggering the feeling of the impending death of frivolity. Deep thoughts for a child, I realize.

As an actual adult, my birthday also marked the start of a slew of massive events including the NFL and NCAA football seasons, New York Fashion Week (and Vogue’s colossal September issue), national elections, highlyanticipated TV shows, must-read books and award-seeking films (sorry kids, no superheroes allowed). Oh, lest we forget, pumpkin spice everything, fresh apples by the bushels, leaf peeping, Thanksgiving rituals and so on. In short, fall is when adulting really commences.

In my decades-long career as top editor of magazines, invariably our deadlines meant that while every single person I knew was absolutely enjoying their late summer in the Hamptons, Fire Island or frolicking in the Mediterranean on look-at-me yachts, my editorial team and I were forced to be in our Manhattan office the entirety of August on an unmovable deadline. I’m not sure if you’ve ever experienced the fresh hell of being the only person in your friend group in sweltering late-August NYC with the requisite 100 percent humidity hitting you just as smiling tourists from Arkansas approach and ask which way Times Square is. In that moment, I realize in the starkest of terms that no one promised me that living in the greatest city on the planet would always be fun. Oy

But what my schedule did provide was the allowance to go on truly epic extended trips—Sydney (four times), Paris, London, Madrid, Montréal, Rome— in late September or October, well past the time US tourists had invaded those global destinations. By the time I got there, those same, chic but testy can’tbe-bothered-with-Americans locals were kinda-sorta missing us a bit more than they admitted and were always exceedingly welcoming to me on all of my memorable trips to those beautiful cities. Meanwhile, back in Gotham, my summer Hamptons/Fire Island/ Mediterranean-loving friends were invariably in the midst of their own eye-ball deep, high-stakes work.

off broadway Spending an entire afternoon with Broadway legend Patti LuPone was exactly what I hoped it would be—and so much more.

When we received final confirmation that Broadway icon Patti LuPone—who’s to musical theater what, say, Michael Jordan is to basketball—would be our cover story for this second anniversary edition of The Mountains, I started thinking about the term adulting once again. In the exclusive, LuPone tells me all about her two fall premieres that couldn’t be bigger or less alike in their reach: her triumphant return to the Great White Way in Jen Silverman’s comedy, The Roommate, co-starring her close friend Mia Farrow, as well as her role in Marvel’s Agatha All Along currently streaming on Disney+. That’s quite a bridge between performing eight-times-a-week on a Broadway stage while simultaneously co-starring on a big-time show in the Marvel Universe. But in both instances, Patti LuPone, unsurprisingly, was adulting seamlessly: Saving her most important work for the fall.

Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that this fall all of us—indeed, the entire country’s grown-ups—will be asked to participate in what is unquestionably the most important election of our lifetime. All I’ll ask is this: Please vote. Adulting, more than ever, is very much required. Tell a friend.

—Richard Pérez-Feria EDITOR IN CHIEF

hits the spot On Route 203 between Chatham and Kinderhook, NY the Chatham Berry Farm becomes the Greenhouse Cidery, a hip spot for plein air drinks and a sumptuous dinner.

the wear

Fall Fashion: Hudson Shops

Presenting three must-stop destinations for all your autumn wardrobe essentials. |

By Todd Plummer

as the warmer months slip away and autumn leaves fall into place, there’s no time like the present to spruce up your wardrobe. Pile on the layers, try a new jacket and slip into that brand new cardigan. Style in the mountains isn’t about conforming with trends—it’s about being cool. Here are three of the region’s best solutions for when your closet needs a fall refresh.

The thesis of this charming shop is simple: Exclusively American-made goods for everyone. After a quarter century of designing,

manufacturing and selling garments in New York City and abroad, owner and founder Mary Vaughn Williams returned to her hometown of Hudson to reconnect with the people and the way of life that first informed her love of quality, hard-working clothes. Come for the classics such as buttery smooth James Perse tees and Filson jackets to carry you through the soggiest of winters—stay for the organic cotton socks and giftable jewelry. 443 Warren Street, Hudson

Jamestown Hudson

Partners James Scully and Tom Mendenhall know a thing or two about fashion. Scully cut his teeth as a casting director and fashion show producer, as well as a buyer for legendary New York City boutique Charivari in the 1980s and ’90s; and Mendenhall served as brand president for Ralph Lauren’s Polo and Double RL brands. When the global pandemic struck, they, like many city dwellers, relocated north and figured there was no time like the present to pursue their long-term dream of

Hudson Clothier

Inn

opening their own store. “There’s an optimism and sense of humor to the edit,” Scully says. “A lot of our brands are small and passionate about their craft and are also doing things to give back to their communities.” Don’t come here looking for the same old, same old— expect the unexpected, from stunning shirting by Drake’s, to hand-selected vintage. Keep your eye on Hudson’s best dressed pedestrians and you’ll likely spot more than a few Jamestown Hudson baseball caps floating around—but it’s the shop’s exclusive, one-of-a-kind upcycled Carhartt jackets from Transnomadica that have become this season’s absolute must-have item. 548 Warren Street, Hudson

Tractor Supply Co.

Walk straight past the automotive department and the livestock supplies and head for the clothing section.

There’s absolutely no pomp and circumstance here, but that’s what makes it fun. This isn’t where you come for trendy pieces—it’s where you come to find the workhorses of your closet: the Ariat western boots you’ll wear to the dive bar and also to go rake your lawn; the jeans for less than $40 that you don’t need to be precious about; those requisite Carhartt T-shirts to buy by the armful; the perfect denim overalls for a Halloween costume or for leaning in to your inner farmer. I wouldn’t recommend dressing in head-to-toe Tractor Supply Co. unless you’re working an active jobsite—but for reliable, foolproof pieces to mix into your wardrobe, there’s nowhere better. 350 Fairview, Hudson

character

fashion statement (above and opposite) Jamestown Hudson owners Tom Mendenhall (left) and James Scully bring decades of NYC fashion experience to Hudson, NY.

Legends by

Join ghost hunters as they search for the

For tickets to the ghost tours and other events, scan the QR code. friendsofclermont.org

Lights Out!

Elevate your space with these illuminating treasures.

By Mitch Rustad

Ohm Series 13 Chandelier

A standout from the illuminating Ohm Series, the 13 Chandelier is truly out of this world. Each of the 13 pendants has an opal glass orb which casts a warm ambient glow. The series offers versions with single pendants up to 19 pendants. Starting at $399 Gestalt New York 614 Warren Street Hudson, NY gestaltnewyork.com

Masonry Table Lamp

A stunning reflection of Hammertown’s signature sense of comfort, character, harmony and proportion, this gorgeous ceramic lamp features a grey concrete texture with a distinctive modern base. $465 at Hammertown

Locations in Pine Plains, NY, Rhinebeck, NY and Great Barrington, MA hammertown.com

Ashanti Medium Pikanin Pendant Lampshade

The perfect colorful addition to any living space lighting arrangement, the Ashanti Medium Pikanin Pendant Lampshade is 100 percent handwoven from upcycled fabric offcuts. $259 at ROAM: A Xtina Parks Gallery 16 Water Street, Williamstown, MA roam-a-xtina-parks-gallery.myshopify.com

Red Arredoluce Scrittoio Lamp

In an ultra-modern shop filled with exquisite modern furniture, amidst all its lavish displays and dazzling designs, this Red Arredoluce Scrittoio Lamp is still an eye-popping standout. George Champion Modern Shop, 442 Main Street South, Woodbury, CT, championmodern.com

MILLBROOK MACHINE

Real Estate: The Results Are In!

Our real estate market will likely take off again, once the November election passes.

By Bill Cary

just like the stock market, the real estate market can get, well, weird, in the fall of a presidential election year. In general, there’s an overall nervousness, a low-level anxiety and a let’s-just-wait-this-one-out feeling—for both buyers and sellers.

Elections aside, let’s take a look at how our different markets are performing now compared to 2023.

Hudson Valley

“Business is good in the Hudson Valley; inventory is still tight and it’s more balanced between weekend home and primary home buyers,” says Jason Karadus, owner/principal broker, Corcoran Country Living. “We’re seeing a lot of multiple-bid situations similar to 2022. It’s night and day compared to a year ago. 2023 was probably Corcoran’s toughest year for the second home and luxury markets. Interest rates made it rough everywhere, even in the city, but we’re having a great 2024.”

Looking at May, June and July of this year compared to the same period last year, average sales prices are up substantially in Ulster (from $515,157 in 2023 to $586,304 this year), Dutchess (from $486,099 to $578,920) and Columbia (from $549,574 to $582,378) counties, according to statistics from Corcoran Country Living.

“The stuff less than $2 million is moving quickly when it’s priced right,” Karadus says. “Anything between $500,000 and $1 million, or you can go up to $1.5 million, it just blows off the shelf. Also, a lot of our clientele is a want buyer, not a need buyer. If you give second-home buyers a reason to hit pause, they often will. If there’s uncertainty in the market and they don’t need to buy anything, they’ll step on the sidelines.”

As interest rates go down, more homes will come on the market, he says. “Q1 will be busy—people will be back in the game. Everybody is excited about interest rates coming down. 2025 will be a great year.”

The Hudson Valley is still “incredibly undervalued” compared to other secondhome markets, he says.

Litchfield County

The number of closed home sales is down 7 percent from 2023 in Litchfield, CT. Year-to-date in 2023 (through June), there were 187 closed sales, compared to 174 the same period this year.

But Elyse Harney Morris, broker/owner, Elyse Harney Real Estate, anticipates a strong fall, followed by a strong new year. “We had so many new listings coming on right after Labor Day,” she says. “The photos have been shot; the brochures are ready. We saw it in the spring and now we’ll see it again in the fall. We’re seeing a lot of second-home buyers and buyers who are relocating.” Besides their traditional New York City and Boston buyers, “we’re seeing buyers who are relocating from California, Texas and Washington, D.C.”

A sweet spot for the county? “Anything below $500,000 is scooped up right away,”

she says. Another winner is “anything less than $2 million—with a pool. Anything between $1.5 million and $2 million, I can sell those all day. The challenging spot in the market is $4 million as anything from $3.5 million to $4.5 million is quiet.”

A particularly fast recent sale was in Lakeville, for a $745,000 home within walking distance of the elementary school, Morris says. “It came under agreement right away, and it’ll close above asking.”

In general, “we’re not seeing as many multiple bids for homes and certainly not at the higher prices,” she says.

Catskills

In the Catskills, “We’re seeing an uptick in Greene County and Columbia County,” Karadus says. “People can’t find what they want,” or they’ve been priced out of places such as Woodstock and Phoenicia. “We’re seeing more interest in Athens and Coxsackie, which is interesting.”

For the Catskills, it’s a slightly different buyer, not like the Millbrook or Rhinebeck buyer, he says. “These people only want to live in the mountains—for skiing, hiking, mountain biking. They’re people who really use the mountains.”

Sullivan and Delaware aren’t necessarily for the buyer who wants to be no more than two hours from Midtown, he says. “It’s more of a trek. That said, we’re seeing boundaries pushed both north and west.”

Berkshires

“We have very, very low inventory in the Berkshires,” Morris says. Year-to-date in 2023 (through June), there were 1,111 closed sales, which dropped to 587 for the same period this year. In Lenox, closed sales dropped from 42 in 2023 to 23 this year.

“We have lots of buyers, with very little inventory to show them,” she says. A sweet spot for the Berkshires is $1 million to $1.4 million, with $1.2 million and $1.3 million laying claim to the “sweetest spots. With interest rates going down, we’re anticipating a strong and robust fall. Once rates come down, we’ll see more inventory—it’s a snowball effect. An election year can delay somebody from doing something, but by January or February they’re doing it.”

The people have spoken.

greene economy This Athens, NY home in the Catskills is bucking a regional trend: Its Greene County location makes it desirable for buyers priced out of other more populous locations.

curb appeal

Home Front

Check out these area beauties.

Lakeside | $2,495,000

40 Lakeside Drive

Rhinebeck, NY

3BR | 2.5BA | 2,770 SF | 4.5 Acres

“Sleek and sophisticated, this modernist residence echoes the subtle ripples of nearby Round Pond, to which Lakeside has lake access rights. The architecture comprises three wings joined on a single level to create indoor and outdoor living spaces.” DOUG MAXWELL REAL ESTATE BROKER / UPSTATE MODERNIST

Antique Saltbox c. 1781 | $1,225,000

56 Hall Road

Cornwall, CT

4BR | 3.5BA | 2,236 SF | 10 Acres

“Once owned by Broadway producer Oscar Serlin, this historic saltbox was host to many who worked in the theater. Keeping its historic charm with original exposed beams, fireplaces and surrounded by stone walls, the home has been lovingly updated for modern convenience.”

COLLEEN VIGEANT

ASSOCIATE AGENT/ ELYSE HARNEY REAL ESTATE

Surrounded By

Nature’s Beauty |

$445,000

172 Mill River Great

Barrington Road

New Marlborough, MA

4BR | 1.5BA | 2,662 SF | 4.5 Acres

“This property offers a serene and private retreat providing the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. An attached barn awaits your creative vision. The Konkapot River is nearby and a general store is just around the corner.”

SUZANN LAVERACK WARD OWNER / LICENSED REAL ESTATE SALESPERSON HOUSATONIC REAL ESTATE

the city

Hot Town, Cool Nights

It’s fall in Gotham: What could be better than that? | By Jack Rico

autumn in this magical city is when fashion and culture truly come alive. There’s an unparalleled buzz in the cool air—restaurants are packed, crowds are dressed to impress and theater season is the hottest ticket in town. It’s as if all of New York City is one big premiere and autumn is its grand opening. From marquee art exhibits to adventurous new restaurants, here are some picks to living your best fall life in Gotham.

exhibit

Edges Of Ailey at the Whitney Museum of American Art Head to the Whitney Museum and experience Edges of Ailey, a first-of-its-kind

JOHN LINDQUIST

exhibition celebrating the life and legacy of visionary choreographer Alvin Ailey. Watch rarely seen interviews, read personal letters and catch live performances that offer a unique look at Ailey’s staggering contributions to dance, Black culture and art. It’s your front-row ticket to legitimate history.

theater Death Becomes Her

dancing from a star (opposite)

Explore Alvin Ailey’s magical dance history at the new exhibit at the Whitney Museum Of American Art; (above) Death Becomes Her on Broadway; Assouline Madison; tán restaurant in Midtown Manhattan.

If a night out on the Great White Way is on your fall agenda, Death Becomes Her is must-see. This musical twist on the 1992 cult classic film promises a glamorous production, a witty script and a killer cast toplined by Megan Hilty and Michelle Williams. If you like your humor with a touch of the macabre, this one’s a scream.

restaurant tán

Escape to Tulum, México without leaving Manhattan at tán, the new hotspot from Chefs Richard Sandoval and Jonatán Gómez Luna Torres. Feel like you’ve been whisked away to the Riviera Maya while

enjoying Yucatán chicken paired with a smoky Shaman’s Mezcalita—perfect for a date night or a stylish evening with friends.

café

Assouline Madison

Get lost in literary luxury at Assouline Madison, the chic new bookstore and café on Madison Avenue, just steps from Chanel and Hermès. Browse a curated selection of their designer books, then sink into a plush armchair with an espresso and book in hand and let the world outside melt away. How New York is that?

reel More Movies, Please

More

The fun continues even aft er the Woodstock Film F estival with the inaugural Borscht Belt Film Fest in Ellenville, NY on November 1-3. Showcasing feature fi lms, documentaries and shorts, including an ap pearance by Academy Award winning director Ang Lee who’ll be on hand to celebrate Taking Woodstock . Tickets and more at borschtbeltfi lmfest. org —ABBE ARONSON

eat + drink

Berry Berry Happy D rink and be merry at Chatham Berry Farm

By Robyn Perry Coe

Luxe millie + madge Now Open

By Abbe Aronson

|

Sometimes, you have to create the store you want to shop at.

favorites including Crispy Eggplant and Panang Curry, the Greenhouse Cidery is a hip spot for plein air drinks and dinner. Relax at wooden tables (good dogs welcome) while children play in the nearby fi eld. There’s even live music on special nights. And no one’s on their phone. Open until November 2. thechathamberryfarm.com

good news! No need to go to Finland to be happy. On Route 203 between Chatham and Kinderhook, NY the Chatham Berry Farm devotes a former greenhouse to serving New York State hard ciders, beers, wines and spirits. Open Thursdays and Fridays 5-9pm and Saturdays 12-9pm, with Yummy Kitchen cooking

By James Long

When residents in our region see familiar local landscapes and landmarks on the big screen, it can instill a sense of pride and community. Film location shooting doesn’t happen just because it’s in the script, however. New York’s fi lm commissions play a vital role in attracting fi lm and television productions by off ering a range of incentives, including tax credits and grants, making it fi nancia lly attractive for fi lmmakers to shoot on location in the Empire State.

A centerpiece in steering the next movie blockbuster and television series to NY, the Hudson Valley Film Commission is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024. The nonprofi t HVFC provides guidance in pre-production, location scouting, casting, production and post-production while recommending local artisans, skilled professionals, businesses and services which generate increased spending on hotels, restaurants, equipment rentals, and more, directly benefi ting local economies—a win-win for all involved.

A perfect example is the upcoming release of horror fi lm sequel Smile 2 , which was shot in Orange County with an assist from Orange County NY Tourism & Film Offi ce (OCNY). Starring Naomi Scott, Sosie Bacon and Kyle Ga llner, the fi lm hits theaters on October 18, just in time for Halloween. Hold on to your candy corn!

girl

Stylish retailer millie + madge in Woodstock caters to women who are “hungry for a fashion-forward shop,” says Owner Beth Bogulski.

shop,

o one expected Beth Bogulski to settle down Upstate. A self-anointed Forever City Girl, she began to visit her boyfriend while he was working on a hospitality project in the mountains, and that’s how she ended up falling love here in Woodstock, NY. Taking a complete leap of faith, Beth relocated to the Catskills full time to lend a hand in revitalizing the property with her formidable business background that includes more than three decades in retail with major clients including Kohl’s, Macy’s, QVC, The Gap and others. Some nine years later, Beth and her now-husband have anchored themselves with deep roots in this mountainside town. First order of business? Sourcing high quality, fashionable and functional shoes and accessories and showcasing them in an absolute jewel box of a boutique that speaks to her own predilections, namely: authentic, quiet, sustainable luxury. “It’s easy to fi nd snea kers and hiking boots in Woodstock, but where were the other options?” Beth asked. “Women here were hungry for a fashionforward shop.” millie+madge (named for Beth’s grandmothers) features women-centric global brands such as beek and Daniella Shevel, with an eye on handmade quality, exquisite details that are never fussy, and sustainability whenever possible.

a ride, yes, but in her deft hands, the stories invariably feel more than just a journey; they feel… important And that’s the quality that elevates her writing from journalist to auteur.

Ntrend

Moveable Feast

Our

GB takes the pop-up restaurant concept t o the Berkshires. | By Isabel Hochman

Aft er Hours

GB is taking Berkshires dining to the next le vel through what they’re calling “collaboration of community.” This community minded pop-up restaurant is all about staying connected—to people, the region and the shift ing seasons.

home cooking

“Aft er Hours GB is the Berkshir es’ restaurant without a home,” says Founder Kevin Kelly.

ft er Hours

Ahome

Live Like A Legend

Kevin Kelly, founder and owner/operator grew up in Great Barrington, MA with family in the Berkshires going back ten generations and has dedicated his career to understanding the shift ing dynamics of the region. He describes Aft er Hours as a “restaurant without a home.” Kelly takes advantage of the non-operational hours of various brick-and-mortar establishments to host creative dining experiences. Upcoming dinners will take place at GB Eats, Marjoram & Roux, Paige’s Place and Guidos, featuring seasonal off erings and DJ Dance parties. Who’s going?

read this Donna Drama

Silo Ridge Field Club is what dreams are made of.

Eight years ago when Silo Ridge Field Club—located between Amenia and Millbrook—fi rst opened, featuring its touted golf course designed by Tom Fazio, NFL legend Tom Brady was among the fi rst to secure his spot in the scenic New York club. Now, some eight years later, Silo Ridge Field Club is arguably the most in-demand luxury gated community in this region boasting less than 300 homes. Put another way: If you have that kind of cash and have real love for the local lifestyle Silo Ridge Field Club provides, what, precisely, are you waiting for? Nirvana awaits.

A Beacon resident since 2017, Minkowitz’s novel, DONNAVILLE is set in a fi ctio nal town dominated by a prison most residents prefer not to think about. “When my wife and I moved to Beacon in 2017, I actually thought I’d hate it,” Minkowitz says. “I was shocked when I wound up loving Beacon and feeling more at home here than any other place I’ve lived.”

Lambda Literary Award winner and Beacon resident Donna Minkowitz publishes anticipated debut novel.

By Richard Pérez-Feria

when I wound up Beacon and more at home here than any other I’ve lived.”

The Washington Post ’s Steven Petrow weighed in with an early rave declaring DONNAVILLE to be nothing less than “a tour de force of wit and imagination.” Sounds good, right? DONNAVILLE is available October 31 from Indolent Books.

Steven Petrow in with an rave tour

hen I fi rst heard the acclaimed queer journalist Donna Minkowitz was about to publish her fi rst novel, “well,” I said out loud, “ that’s going to be special.” I wasn’t wrong. Minkowitz, whom I commissioned and edited several major magazine stories dating back to last century, is undeniably a gift ed storyteller who always takes the reader for

WWedding P-A-R-T-Y We couldn’t possibly let the looming winter chill come without fl ashing to this: the perfect wedding. What Sally Girouard and Ryan Hamill achieved at Camp Lenox in Otis, MA was a transference of pure joy to those witnessing this IRL #couplegoals. Now tell me, don’t you wanna dance with somebody who loves you? I know I do. –RICHARD PÉREZ-FERIA (wedding) ERIC S. LEGER/ESL PHOTOGRAPHY &

—RICHARD PÉREZ-FERIA

From Millerton, With Love

Let this charming New York town put its spell on you. And, yeah, resisting is pointless.

By Dana Rohn and Phoebe E. Rohn

take the winding drive up Route 22—just 90 miles north of Manhattan—you’ll find the delightful town of Millerton, NY. This quintessential Dutchess County tiny municipality certainly punches above its weight in charm and offerings.

First, book a room at the Millerton Inn The hotel is an 1860s landmark lovingly restored by its owners and is walking distance from all the local attractions and the ideal home base for a busy weekend in our town.

Saturday

10 a.m. BREAKFAST

Start the weekend with a relaxing breakfast at the Harney & Sons tea bar, where you can taste your way through all the varieties of this world-famous tea merchant.

11 a.m. EXPLORE

Stroll through the Millerton Farmers Market where smallscale and sustainable farmers offer their wares alongside

when in rohn The Rohn family are owners of the popular Montage Antiques

micro-batch bakers selling everything from sourdough bread to cookies and scones.

12:30 p.m. LUNCH

Stop in Irving Farm for a light lunch and a coffee. This local coffee roaster has gained wide popularity and now has locations all over New York City Grab coffee and a sandwich before heading on a shopping spree.

in the heart of Millerton, NY.

2 p.m.

ANTIQUING

Visit all the antique shops, of course. Millerton’s known for being a great spot to do some serious antiquing. Our shop, Montage Antiques, has a focus on vintage European furniture and accessories. The seasoned antiques shopper will be surprised by the reasonable pricing most of the Millerton shops are able to maintain, so whether you’re redecorating your home—or a client’s home—or looking to spice up your coffee table, make sure to leave space in your car for all of the unique treasures that you will find, and if you find furniture, remember that most shops can

coordinate deliveries. Don’t miss the Millerton Antiques Center, Cottage + Camp, Hunter Bee and the Old Mill of Irondale

7 p.m. DINNER

Have a delicious dinner at the recently opened Willa Bar The restaurant was taken over by the former bartender and his business partner, who’ve both worked hard to build relationships with local farmers and offer exceptional and sustainable food and quenching cocktails.

Sunday

8 a.m. OUTDOOR ACTIVITY

Get an early start and take a brisk walk or bike ride along the Harlem Valley Rail Trail. Whether you’re out for a casual stroll, or you’re an avid cyclist, the 46-mile, fully paved trail can

be accessed from the middle of town. Even in the depths of winter, the rail trail is a highlight for cross country skiers.

9:30 a.m.

BREAKFAST

After working up a hearty appetite, return to town and go to Oakhurst Diner This former greasy spoon was taken over by the Harney Family in 2010, and has seamlessly maintained its 1950s charm, yet updated its menu to tempt even the most discerning Brooklyn vegans. Not an easy task.

10:30

a.m. DISCOVER

Stroll through the shops on the south side of Main Street. Oblong Books has an exceptional selection of reading materials and games. Hit Abode and BES for beautiful home goods. The Dutchess Trading Company features French designer clothing and accessories as well as luxury European household products. Avid vintage shoppers shouldn’t miss Designer Finds and a wander through The Elephant’s Tusk The shop demitasse.

specializes in gorgeous gifts, while Treefort Toys Inc. has charming children’s things. For art and wine lovers, stop in Millerton Wine & Spirits and the Geary Gallery Westerlind is the place for high end modern outdoor sportswear. If that wears you out, stop into Candy-O’s for an exceptional scoop of ice cream or a box of handmade chocolates. Cap off your visit with a Millerton hat from the T-Shirt Farm

1 p.m. ENTERTAINMENT

Round out your perfect Millerton weekend with a relaxing movie at the town’s own independent Moviehouse, where you’ll find box office hits alongside independent films, Met Opera live events and other specialty programs.

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FOR THE FALL BEAUTY

makers

twin peaks Nigel Barker has spent a career shooting amazing images, including his wife Crissy Chin, left, and her twin sister, Kimmy Chin, both ballet dancers, near Barker’s home in Woodstock, NY.

genius, in human form

Photography by Nigel Barker

PATTi LUPONE PRESiDENT

The Broadway icon electrifies the Great White Way in The Roommate and joins the Marvel Universe in Agatha All Along. Se le in for delicious truthing from musical theater’s greatest star direct from her idyllic Connecticut home.

BY

RICHARD PÉREZ-FERIA

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN

no pitty patti “Our profession is 99 percent rejection. It just is, and how do you accept that? How do you absorb that kind of rejection without turning into someone bitter? You just have to keep going, my friend. You just have to keep it moving,” says LuPone.

My heart rate is quickening as I approach Patti LuPone’s door at her sprawling home in the bucolic town of Kent, CT mere moments before our scheduled interview is to begin and I have to stop myself from laughing out loud. I mean, this sensation is a new one for me as I never—and I mean n-e-v-e-r—get nervous meeting, interviewing or otherwise interacting with celebrities. After a decades-long magazine career breathing the same oxygen with so, so many of these global superstars, I thought I was immune to the jitters. Yet, here I am, face-to-face with the living legend herself, and I’m more than a little taken aback by my mind’s betrayal. Yes, of course she’s the Queen Of Broadway, the diva to end all divas and all of that, but as I smile at the freshly showered, makeup free, five-foot-two, 75-year-old woman standing in front of me who graciously lets me in to her sanctuary, I lean into my nervousness because the source of my uneasiness suddenly reveals itself: I want Patti LuPone to like me. Yikes.

Settling in her comfy den with direct views of her inviting backyard pool and impressive (and expansive) grounds, LuPone introduces me to her handsome, bemused husband of 36 years, Matthew Johnston (sporting a fetching ponytail), while grabbing the remote to turn off host Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC. Sensing a political kindred spirit, I instantly calm down and I’m back to being me. Finally [Note: This conversation was held prior to President Biden announcing he wouldn’t seek a second term.]

unexpectedly and emphatically joined the Marvel Universe as Lilia Calderu in the Disney+ can’t-miss series, Agatha All Along It’s...a lot Trying to explain the magnitude of LuPone to, say, a millennial not familiar with popular culture prior to Olivia Rodrigo getting her driver’s license is challenging (personally I’m obsessed with Taylor, Olivia, Sabrina, Beyoncé, Ariana, Billie, Chappell, Gaga, Charli and so on). So here’s a waaay condensed bio for one of the most colossally consequential figures in the recorded history of all entertainment. Period.

Patti LuPone was born in North Port, Long Island to ItalianAmerican parents (her mother was Sicilian). Her great-great aunt was famous Italian opera singer Adelina Patti and her late older brother, Robert LuPone, was a Tony-nominated actor who originated the role of Zach, the director in A Chorus Line She was part of the very first Juilliard’s Drama Division graduating class—along with classmate Kevin Kline—before becoming an OG member of John Houseman’s nationally touring repertory theater troupe, The Acting Company. From there, well, Patti LuPone became Patti LuPone. Diva. Legend. Icon.

PATTI LUPONE AND I commence our dance tenuously, with me asking the star this question: After so much success, so many accolades, so much of… everything, what’s left to do? “Oh, tons!” she shoots back, smiling. “There’s no end to an actor’s life. An actor can act until they fall down dead on that stage. There isn’t an end, which is great. I mean, it keeps us young.”

And if being busy is the secret to keeping young, LuPone will be Benjamin Buttoning for many moons to come. I mean, is it possible that the perpetually critically-acclaimed septuagenarian actor has ever been busier? After having just returned a day ago from her triumphant, month-long tour of Australia with her new concert, A Life In Notes—admitting that she’s still jetlagged—LuPone has again returned to her beloved Broadway at the Booth Theatre to co-star with one of her closest friends, Mia Farrow, in Jen Silverman’s comedy, The Roommate, directed by Jack O’Brien. Concurrently, LuPone has

In 1988—importantly—in the midst of her career explosion, LuPone got married, and a couple of years later, Johnston and LuPone became parents to son, Josh.

LuPone is a three-time Tony Award winner (a woefully low number given her numerous unforgettable performances) for her portrayals as Joanne in Marianne Elliott’s award-winning production of the Stephen Sondheim George Furth musical Company; Rose in the recent Broadway revival of the Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents classic Gypsy; and the title role in the original Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s and Tim Rice’s Evita. She’s also won two Olivier Awards, two Grammy Awards and was inducted into the American Theater Hall Of Fame. For my money, it simply doesn’t get much cooler than that.

For the better part of six incredible decades, LuPone has captivated audiences in every and all ways—film, television, stage—but, unequivocally, her mastery, her dominance in musical theater is something of a game-changer. LuPone galvanized and elevated musical theater by simply overwhelming the senses when she was on stage. You couldn’t take your eyes off this powerful force of nature with the in-your-face, I-will-not-be-dismissed mezzosoprano operatic belting vocals for the ages. To watch a performance from our greatest musical theater thespian is to sit enraptured, forever lost in all of her character’s moves. It’s what Bette Davis had on screen. It’s what Barbra Streisand has in concert. It’s what Patti LuPone has on stage: a palpable vulnerability wrapped in turbocharged fearlessness resulting in an intoxicating experience to behold.

AS WE CONTINUE to get to know one another, I sense an apprehension in some of her answers, so I try a different tact.

I’ve read you share my view that women should run a lot more things than they do, I ask. “Yeah, especially in this dark time that we’re experiencing in the country,” she says. I follow-up. How scared are you about the looming presidential election? “Oh my God, I’m very scared,” she says looking intensely at me. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this distressed. And I’m going to be on stage, and I don’t know what we’re going to do, because if the election goes the wrong way, Mia [Farrow] and I are on stage until December, and I know that Mia is extremely political. I don’t know what will happen. I guess we’ve been collectively asleep at the wheel for a long time.”

Sticking with politics for a moment longer, I tell the now completely focused and newly energized LuPone my biggest wish for

destiny’s child “I know that I was born to do what I’m doing. I recognized my destiny very early on,” says LuPone. (clockwise, from top left) War Paint; Evita; Sunset Boulevard; Company; Master Class; Les Miserables; Sweeney Todd; (opposite, from top) The Roommate; Agatha All Along.

our country. I’d abolish the Electoral College, I say. Why should a vote cast in California not count as much as a vote in South Dakota? “Yes! I completely agree with you,” LuPone says emphatically. “I mean, I don’t think we’ve even been a democracy. I think corporations are running the country and the Supreme Court is just… well…beyond.” As one can easily surmise, LuPone is a woman with clarity about her opinions and the absolute ability to express said opinions for all to hear. Just ask any theater-goer that displays rude behavior during

a LuPone performance on stage (those poor souls famously suffered LuPone’s justified wrath—it’s a fun Google search). Still, I’m curious to know if she sees herself as an optimist or a joyful person who gives herself daily positive affirmations Her response is classic LuPone.

“Do I say affirmations?” she asks incredulously. “No, I’m a glass half empty girl. I’m a melancholy baby. I’ve always been a melancholy baby. Funny, right? It’s not negativity, exactly. I think it’s just innate. It’s not pressure, external pressure or anything like that at all. It’s just in my DNA.”

Let’s pull this thread a bit, shall we? So, I ask, is that what was at the root of your very public falling out with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber after he cast Glenn Close—instead of you—in his hit musical Sunset Boulevard when it headed to Broadway in the middle of your triumphant run in the role in London’s West End? More succinctly, do you feel Webber has paid enough of a price financially or reputationally for what you believe he did to you? I want to hear her answer to this, so I lean in, almost uncomfortably close.

“Well, he hasn’t had a hit in years, right?” she asks sarcastically. [Laughs] “When we were in Australia, Sarah Brightman, his second wife, apparently bombed, and then she wasn’t even showing up for performances. Look, I think he wants—he wanted—or he wants to be Stephen Sondheim. Full stop. He would like the critical success of Stephen Sondheim. I actually did run into Webber when I sang on the Grammys. I think he was being honored or something. I sang, ‘Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina.’”

who comes from the independent film world. And her first project for Marvel was Wanda Vision. If you saw that you know there was a fight at the end between Wanda and Agatha and now Agatha is under a spell and she needs and wants her power back, so she has to put a coven together—and I’m the oldest witch. It’s so great.” [Laughs]

AS OUR TALK TURNS to broader topics, I wonder out loud if LuPone is a culture vulture when it comes to the small screen. Which streaming shows, if any, does the Broadway legend consider to be binge-worthy? I need to know.

“I just love Hacks,” she says, once again smiling. “Slow Horses is great. Gary Oldman is outstanding in that show. Oh, and I love Bridgerton and The Bear I’m pissed off that they cancelled The Great I love a lot from the historical genre. Let me think, what else today? The Crown—let’s not forget that amazing show. Oh, and Palm Royale! That’s the best. How lucky are they to have Carol Burnett? I mean, to not speak a word! Talk about a comedic legend. I mean, I love the show, and I love her. I also love Kristen Wiig. What a fun, fun show.”

Speaking of a fun show, LuPone’s quasi-shocking entrance into the Marvel Universe has even surprised her, in the best possible way. “How crazy is it that I’m in Agatha All Along?” she says. “I can’t wait. I truly can’t wait. I can talk about the show’s creator, Jac Schaeffer,

TAKING A MOMENT, I look around and can palpably feel the love and comfort LuPone has for her surroundings, her life with her husband and her beautiful, warm hug of a home. Tell me about Kent, this idyllic little town of yours, I ask her.

“Well, this is where we live, you know what I mean?” she says. “We moved out of New York City in 1987. I actually had been coming to this road since 1968 because my classmate from Juilliard, his parents owned the farmhouse across the street from where we’re sitting now. We’re on the foundation of my friend’s dad’s house. It was so interesting. This is a renovation. We were kids, and we’d come up here all the time. Like a lot of weekends, we’d come up to the farmhouse right across the street, and Marjorie said to us, when we were kids, please help us preserve this land. Cut to 1981 when Jed, my classmate, said, my dad’s selling off the prettiest parcel of land at the top of the hill. So we bought it—in all, it’s ten acres. And here we are. Happy.”

Do people in Kent leave her alone when she’s at the farmers market choosing which tomatoes are best, I ask. “Yes, exactly,” LuPone says. “They know me, but it’s Kent, so there’s no paparazzi in the bushes. And, no, I mean, I once said that Kent was full of farmers and fashion designers. Oscar De La Renta lived up here, so did Bill Blass, Henry Kissinger…so many others. Here’s the thing, my roots are here in Kent, and I love it here. Simple as that.”

For the bigness of her reputation—the dramatic stories about Patti LuPone abound—I found her to be real, measured, caring… nice What do people get wrong about you, I ask the icon sitting next to me. “Oh, I think the toughness and the brand,” she says quickly. “Show business is brutal. In order to survive, you have to toughen up.” What do people get right about you? I follow-up. “I don’t know, because I don’t know what people think,” she says. “I don’t think that way. I have a small circle of friends, and if they got something right about me, they’d know that I was funny.”

The fact that LuPone is hilarious isn’t a surprise to me, particularly after seeing her jaw-dropping, must-see appearances on Andy Cohen’s hit Bravo late-night show, Watch What Happens Live. I want to know what she thought of those appearances. “Yeah, Andy Cohen just taunts me,” she says. “And I love him! [Laughs] It’s so much fun to do those silly games he plays on the air. It’s a fun, fun show for sure.”

Patti LuPone that I want to

THERE ARE TWO Patti LuPone performances that I want to bring up that may surprise her as favorites of mine for they’re different and they don’t involve a theater stage. You know, Patti, I loved you in Ryan Murphy’s limited series, Hollywood How was that for you?

The actress is once again fully engaged.

“Thank you,” she tells me sweetly. “We thought Hollywood was going to be huge, and it didn’t happen. And it was supposed to have a second season, too. I loved the costumes. I loved that whole period. The veteran cast were so good, right? Holland Taylor and Joe Mantello were excellent. Queen Latifah was also fantastic. The surprise for me was how humble and hardworking Queen Latifah was on set. And she was so gracious backstage when we were all sitting around and, you know, talk about somebody that you think has a tough exterior. But I thought when we were all sitting around, I saw genuine humility, and I became so enamored with her because she seemed like a real good person.”

broadway baby “There’s no end to an actor’s life. An actor can act until they fall down dead on that stage. There isn’t an end—it keeps us young,” says LuPone. (clockwise, from top left) Anything Goes; TheActing Company troupe; The Baker’s Wife;With Juilliard classmate Kevin Kline in The Robber Bridegroom; Oliver!; Accidental Death Of An Anarchist; Anything Goes; The Old Neighborhood with Peter Riegert; The Woods with Peter Weller; (opposite, from top) Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood; LuPone’s latest cabaret show, “A Life In Notes.”

The second performance was LuPone’s magical collab with the amazingly talented—and deliciously gay—Randy Rainbow on his YouTube channel where they mercilessly (and melodically) skewered Trump. I needed the deets.

“That was pretty good, no?” she says happily. “Could anyone be more talented and not vilified, right? But Randy’s so out there, and

you’d think the Far Right would go after him. I think Randy skewers the Far Right perfectly—Oh! My! God!—and yet seems immune to their attacks. Thank God! I mean, Randy Rainbow and his brilliant videos were the escape valve from the pandemic we all needed while we were suffering under the monster’s reign.”

Subtle, Patti LuPone is not.

IT’S TIME FOR the ever popular name game, I tell the New York native. I want to know her initial thoughts on the following people. The good news is that she was totally game.

Stephen Sondheim “Genius.” Audra McDonald “Ummm [Long pause] Ummm Complicated.” Ryan Murphy “I wish he was my Hollywood Svengali.” [Laughs] Mandy Patinkin “I adore him. He’s my rock. I truly adore him.” Alan Cumming “He’s so talented. Isn’t he so clever? So clever, so wonderful, so positive, which I love. Christine Baranski “I love her. We’re quite different, I think. But what we have is the history of both graduating from Julliard, so we have that training. She’s incredibly talented.” Nathan Lane “He’s just extremely funny and a lovely man.” Harvey Fierstein. “Adore him. I absolutely adore him.” Beyoncé “Adore her. How could I not?”

Since my allotted time for the interview is now up, I close my notebook and thank LuPone for her time when something genuinely surprising happens. The greatest musical theater performer of this—or arguably any— generation tells me: “Let’s keep talking, Richard. I like you.” I never fully understood the meaning of verklempt until that very moment. Wait! Does Patti LuPone like me? I can die a happy man.

I would’ve loved to have played, particularly in musicals, that I didn’t get the opportunity to do. And it gets to a point—and I’m sure you’re the same way about this, Richard—I just stopped wanting certain parts because it always led to depression if I didn’t get the role. So, now, I don’t go after roles, and I keep my expectations lower, so I don’t get disappointed. But did I ever imagine I’d be in the Marvel Universe? Did I ever imagine I’d play Nellie Lovett in Sweeney Todd? That my first Sondheim role would be Nellie? The path that I take now is what comes into my orbit is what I’m supposed to do, and so I’m better at it, and it’s less depressing. It also hits you in a different way when you have gratitude about it, because you’re like, oh, my God, I get to expand in my life in this way; instead of thinking I should have done that other thing. It’s all art in the end. I’ve also turned down roles I maybe should have taken, but our profession is 99 percent rejection. It just is, and how do you accept that? How do you absorb that kind of rejection without turning into someone bitter? You just have to keep going, my friend. You just have to keep it moving.”

watch what happens live “The directors that I would’ve loved to work with back in the day—Bertolucci, Fellini, Truffaut—could’ve resulted in something very special indeed. So, we’ll see what happens,” says LuPone.

Off the cuff, I continue my thoughtful conversation with this fascinating person I actually want to know a lot more about. So, Patti, I ask, what do you really know about yourself or your career?

“I know that I was born to do what I’m doing,” she says. “I recognized my destiny very early on—never questioned it— and I think I’m the same person I was at five as I am today at 70-something. I was the same kid as I am now, exactly so, and I think that’s surprising to people. What I do certainly feeds my soul, and it’s who I am, but I’m still somebody who’s a citizen of this country, and I go shopping and I do laundry, and I watch the news, and I freak out. I mean, I’m still just a regular person, because what I do for a living isn’t for the fame, it’s my calling. Do you know what I’m saying?”

Oh, we’re really on a roll now. No safety net. Let’s go! I proceed. Were you ever truly upset that you didn’t get a role you just knew you were absolutely perfect for?

“Yeah! A ton of them!” she says. “I, of course, mean no disrespect whatsoever to the actors who played those parts, but there are roles that

I THEN TELL Patti LuPone something I’ve been wanting to tell her for 30 years. “If you’ll allow me one observation I’ve held for many decades about you is that I believe Hollywood has never understood you or certainly utilized you properly,” I begin. “It’s such a huge loss for cinema because I believe you could’ve been a Bette Davis for our generation, given the right directors and scripts of course. I’ll go further: I think you had an All About Eve performance in you, and no one in Hollywood understood what they had, so they never gave you the opportunity.” I look up at her after my pointed observation to see what the fallout may be.

“I totally agree with you!” LuPone nearly shouts, clearly delighted. “I completely agree. And it’s not too late! I think that the directors that I would have loved to work with back in the day—Bertolucci, Fellini, Truffaut—could’ve resulted in something very special indeed. So, we’ll see what happens.”

OK, before we leave each other, I tell my new BFF that we should cast our red-hot All About Eve reboot. “I’ll start: You,” I say. “And I’ll also choose the director, Greta Gerwig.”

“Yes! Brilliant,” she says. “OK, let’s definitely get that girl who plays Wednesday, Jenna Ortega. She’d be in there for sure. Oh, and let’s get Taraji P. Henson who’s always amazing and Allison Janney needs a role, too. What a cast! Let’s make this movie, Richard! [Laughs] Anything is possible, right?”

I just spent an entire afternoon with Patti LuPone in her home. And she likes me. Anything is possible indeed.

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film And Scene!

How woodStock Film FeStivAl Got It RiGHt

As the local cinephile’s favorite movie festival turns 25 this fall, WFF reveals it’s just getting started. | BY ISABELLA JOSLIN

As the Woodstock Film Festival (WFF) celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, it stands as a testament to the enduring power of independent cinema and the profound impact of art on community building. Founded in 2000 by Meira Blaustein, Laurent Rejto and a group of passionate volunteers, the festival has grown from a modest affair into a professionally run organization with global recognition. Over the past quarter-century, it hasn’t only become a significant player in the independent film world but has also deeply influenced the cultural landscape of the Hudson Valley, enriching the region’s artistic legacy.

grassroots event driven by lots of love and hard work, created without any funding whatsoever, no celebrity power and all volunteers,” she says.

Today, the festival is a well-oiled machine, employing more than 60 staff members and operating year-round. It’s now considered one of the top regional film festivals in the US, attracting filmmakers and audiences from around the world. This growth has been both organic and deliberate, with the festival staying true to its core values while continuously adapting to the changing landscape of cinema and community.

“We’re proud to have cultivated a global community that continues to grow and enhance the goals the Woodstock Film Festival has always strived for,” Blaustein says.

Reflecting on the festival’s journey, Blaustein highlights the evolution WFF has undergone. “The festival began as a small

Indeed, WFF has been an undeniable driving force behind the artistic growth of the Hudson Valley, acting as an anchor for the

woodstock and chill As part of last year’s Woodstock Film Festival, movie lovers packed the premiere of Joan Baez: I Am A Noise at the Bearsville Theater.

region’s creative industries. The festival has played a pivotal role in shaping the Hudson Valley’s reputation as a hub for artists and filmmakers. From its inception, WFF has encouraged attendees to explore the rich cultural and natural beauty of the region. “Festival events are spread out across the Hudson Valley, primarily in towns with artistic and cultural history going back decades,” Blaustein says.

This connection between the festival and the local communities has been mutually beneficial, with the festival drawing visitors who, in turn, invest in the area’s businesses,

arts organizations and cultural institutions. Over the years, WFF has also collaborated with numerous local entities, such as the Center for Photography at Woodstock and the historic Bearsville Theater, further embedding itself in the local arts scene. Through year-round programming, including film screenings and the Youth Film Lab, WFF offers a multitude of opportunities for community members to engage with the film world. These initiatives have not only enriched the local arts community but have also helped cultivate a new generation of filmmakers and film enthusiasts.

The Woodstock Film Festival’s ability to adapt to change has been a hallmark of its success. Blaustein points to two particularly devastating events in the festival’s history: 9/11 and the global pandemic. In both instances, the festival demonstrated its resilience and commitment to its community. In 2001, just nine days after the September 11 attacks, WFF went ahead with its second edition, providing a space for healing and reflection during a time of national crisis.

“Many thought the festival would be canceled that year, but it wasn’t,” Blaustein says. Instead, the festival served as a refuge for those seeking solace in the power of storytelling. Similarly, in 2020, the festival adapted to the challenges of the pandemic by embracing virtual programming and utilizing local drive-in theaters. This innovative approach allowed WFF to continue its mission of connecting filmmakers with audiences, even in the face of unprecedented circumstances. “This shows the festival’s commitment to our community, our desire and ability to serve as a beacon for important conversations and collective healing in the midst of an ever-changing world,” she says.

As WFF looks to the future, it remains committed to supporting both emerging and established filmmakers while continuing to grow its artistic community. Blaustein envisions the festival as an ever-evolving entity, open to new directions and initiatives.

“The festival is ever-changing, but the decisions we make will always be designed with our incredible and engaged community completely in mind,” she says.

sofia’s choice Celebrated movie director Sofia Coppola (left) and WFF Co-Founder and Executive Director Meira Blaustein, at the premiere of Fairyland in 2023; Cillian Murphy and Clare Dunne in Small Things Like These; (opposite from top) The Battle For Laikipia is set in Kenya; at the 2022 “Women In Film: Then And Now” event with Karen Allen, Thelma Adams and Julie Goldman.

Blaustein says one of the festival’s ongoing goals is to explore how it can further support the creative process while creating career opportunities and enriching the lives of the Hudson Valley community. It would seem that this unflinching and dedicated commitment to both artistic excellence and community engagement has been a driving force behind much of WFF’s success and will undoubtedly continue to shape its future.

The 25th anniversary of the Woodstock Film Festival isn’t just a mere celebration of the festival itself but also a joyous milestone for the community that has supported it. Looking back, Blaustein expresses gratitude for the love the festival has received from sponsors, volunteers and the local community. “The support for the festival has grown over time,” she says, with industry giants Netflix and Amazon joining long-time local sponsors in backing the festival’s mission.

As WFF reaches their current milestone, it remains a vivid example of how a small, passionate idea can grow into something indisputably extraordinary. The festival’s lasting success is a testament to the power of art to bring people together, to inspire and to heal. As the Woodstock Film Festival continues to evolve and expand, it looks to remain a beacon of creativity and community. Pretty ambitious and pretty darn great.

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at home

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO…

BY KEViN SESSUMS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY QUENTiN BACON exclusively for The Mountains

BILL KRAMER, CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, on meeting the love of his life and falling for his husband’s hometown of Hillsdale, NY.

two men and a baby “I absolutely love it up here in Hillsdale,” says Bill Kramer (right) in the kitchen of his home he shares with husband Peter Cipkowski and Billy, the adorable addition to the family.

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d, And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night, I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring, Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west, And thought of him I love.

—Walt Whitman “When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom’d”

Ifind myself sometimes thinking of Walt Whitman when I’m scrolling around on Tinder before slowing to a halt yet again from the ennui that settles in as the replacement for longing. What would Whitman think of this construct on such an apparatus for a certain sort of societal discourse between gentlemen of a certain sort which can lead to sexual congress or maybe even matrimony? Would he long instead for his simpler times when all you needed was your ability to brave the weather alone as you tried to find a way home? He met one of the loves of his life at first sight while doing just that. “How different Walt was then in Washington from the Walt you knew in later years,” Peter Doyle told Dr. R. M. Bucke, one of Whitman’s early champions, who edited and published Whitman and Doyle’s letters in 1897 as Calamus: A Series Of Letters Written During The Years 18681880 by Walt Whitman To A Young Friend (Peter Doyle). “You would not believe it. He was an athlete—great, great. I knew him to do wonderful lifting, running, walking,” Doyle continued. “You ask where I first met him? It is a curious story. We felt to each other at once. I was a conductor. The night was very stormy—he had been over to see his friend John Burroughs before he came down to take the car—the storm was awful. Walt had his blanket—it was thrown round his shoulders—he seemed like an old seacaptain. He was the only passenger. It was a lonely night, so I thought I would go in and talk with him. Something in me made me do it and something in him drew me that way. He used to say there was something in me had the same effect on him. Anyway, I went

into the car. We were familiar at once—I put my hand on his knee—we understood. He did not get out at the end of the trip—in fact went all the way back with me. I think the year of this was 1866. From that time on we were the biggest sort of friends.”

Bill Kramer and Peter Cipkowski, who have a home in Hillsdale, NY, which is known as “Dooryard,” met on Tinder when they each were in Providence, RI on business trips and from that time on have been the biggest sort of friends. They “felt to each other at once.” So much so, they were married in 2019 and spend most of each year now in Los Angeles where Kramer is the CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars), and Cipkowski, an educational technology consultant, lectures at UCLA. But they spend holidays and many weeks each summer at “Dooryard” in Hillsdale since Upstate New York has always been Cipkowski’s home. He even served as a town supervisor there for many years after having grown up above the bar in his family’s Taconic Wayside Inn in Copake Falls. Is that where they spent their honeymoon? “We didn’t have time for a formal honeymoon,” Kramer tells me as he and Cipkowski sit side by side in their kitchen in Hillsdale looking like the hosts of a morning talk show I’d tune in for if I had a television. “Because right after the wedding I accepted the job that brought us back to LA to be the director and president of the Academy Museum. So we almost immediately moved to Los Angeles, which became our honeymoon.”

“We did, however, go to the Chatham Bars Inn on the Cape for a long Labor Day weekend about a month after the wedding and we were able to honor it that way,” says Cipkowski, who resigned his job as the town supervisor in Hillsdale to live life more fully in Los Angeles with his husband.

“Since living in Los Angeles became part of Peter’s love for you, Bill, is part of your love for him your love for Hillsdale?” I ask.

“Absolutely,” Kramer says without hesitation. “I’ll never forget our first Tinder date in Providence. I was working on a project for RISD [Rhode Island School Of Design] and Peter was teaching a class at Brown [University]. We didn’t think we were going to have time to meet since he was going back to New York, so we grabbed

a lunch. In my prior life I had looked at houses up in Columbia County because I had lived in New York, and I was always attracted to this area. When he told me he was a supervisor in Hillsdale with a beautiful home in Hillsdale, I immediately fell in love.”

Kramer laughs. Cipkowski smiles rather wanly, but with warmth.

“I’m teasing,” Kramer says. “But I do absolutely love it up here. So this has always felt like home.”

“It did feel sort of instant,” says Cipkowski when I asked if it was love at first sight. “We were both ready for something serious and we’re both kind of serious guys. We had both clearly been around the block. We ended up spending the next weekend together here in Hillsdale. Bill came up.”

“It was love at first sight for me,” says Kramer. “Our second date was that weekend here in Hillsdale and the town became a core part of the fabric of our relationship. I not only fell in love with Peter but the house and his friends and family.”

People, for good and bad, are always complaining about Upstate towns not being what they once were because of the influx of monied outsiders. Cipkowski has had the vantage point of experiencing such change by being a local Upstate kid and then a town supervisor and now mostly a weekend and holiday inhabitant himself in the kind of well-appointed home that awaits. “When I was 17, I got the hell out of here and never thought I’d come back,” he says. “In the early 1990s, I was able to buy this house from the gentleman for whom I used to mow the lawn. I couldn’t really afford it, but we made it happen. It was a weekend place then because I was living and working in New York City. But you’re right. Back then Hudson was boarded-up—extremely boarded-up—but through the ’90s the spotlight sort of turned on a bit. Some amazing designers and antique dealers were doing some great work there. Same thing in Hillsdale. It was very much a rural town like other rural towns in America that had no longer found a way to function. As a supervisor, I was able to see the change and help direct some of the positive change. Hudson and towns like Hillsdale are at a crossroads. We’re lucky because we’re

between Hudson and Great Barrington, which was also boarded up when I was a kid.”

It’s been The Great Unboarding. Kramer, for his part, got his master’s degree in urban planning and public policy. “On that first date of ours in Providence, Peter, who was then still the town supervisor, was talking about a master plan for Hillsdale that he commissioned from an agency called Project for Public Spaces which I knew about from my urban planning days.”

“As one talks about on a first date,” I offer. “Oh, it was hot,” says Cipkowski whose wan warmth settles into a wryness which has awaited its arrival as if it were a weekend home itself, comfortable and comforting, manicured but not too mannered.

“I just loved that Peter is a great intellect and so curious about people and places and the evolution of places,” says Kramer whose varied career through lots of big arts organizations and nonprofits has also been enhanced by those same personal attributes, a career which has now culminated in his being the CEO of the Academy of Motion

Picture Arts and Sciences which includes not only the Oscar ceremony each year but also the Academy Museum and its many other programs and branches. Both men have big, rich lives, as do many people who weekend Upstate. Is Hillsdale a respite from those lives, or the rescue they seek from them? Is living Upstate a kind of urban planning of the more personal sort? The Great Unboarding has, in its way, given way to The Great Unburdening. “Respite is a great word,” says Kramer. “We recharge here. But we’re also very social here. I find that in addition to being a great place of beauty

love nest “Falling in love at this stage in life was a surprise, yes,” Cipkowski says, from the understated beauty that is his and Kramer’s home.

and relaxation, there’s a real community that we connect with as well as cultural institutions. So we feed ourselves creatively while we’re here which is also a way of recharging. I can work from anywhere.”

But because of the nature of Kramer’s job does he ever quit working even when in nature?

“Never,” says Cipkowski. “Never.”

“I’m always working, and I love it,” Kramer insists. “It’s a great privilege. When I’m here and I’m working, I think creatively in a way sometimes I don’t when I’m in Hollywood. I’m slightly removed. I can strategize and think about the big picture that helps me vision out the future in a different way. It actually feeds into my work in a very healthy way.”

Diplomacy has been a part of each man’s professional life. Kramer has to navigate Hollywood and the movie industry with its many egos demanding agency from his perch of institutional power. Cipkowski when he was a supervisor had to navigate politically a region that can be culturally polarized. “Bill’s experiences as the CEO of the Academy are on a larger scale but they do feel at times what my experience was like as a supervisor participating in this town that, like a lot of towns in the region, are polarized to some degree. I had to work very hard to bridge the world and desires of the newcomers and part-time residents—who I believe have an equal stake in the community and ought to be engaged—and the locals and the longterm residents who saw me as a local boy and accepted me even though I went faraway and came back. Bill is a natural leader and didn’t need any advice from me, but we did connect in our desire to navigate the tensions in the communities in which we live.”

it just sort of merges at a certain point. And you say, ‘OK, this is it.’ That Oscar book helped seal that deal. My grandmother played a big part in my life growing up. She still plays a big part. She’s still alive. She’s 96. But when I was growing up she’d bring me the weekly Variety and Billboard to read. She’d come to our house every Tuesday night for dinner, and she knew I was obsessed with movies and lists. Peter and I go to the movies a lot up here.”

“We love Jacob’s Pillow, too,” says Cipkowski mentioning the legendary dance center over in nearby Becket, MA.

peter principle His duties as the man in charge of the Academy Awards notwithstanding, Kramer (right) is clear about why he’s able to succeed. “Peter’s changed my perception of

life in a huge way,” he says of his husband.

“I couldn’t do the work that I do without Peter and this life.”

“Peter has opened my eyes and my mind to looking at the world in many different ways,” says Kramer. “He’s changed my perception of life in a huge way and for someone who was locked into certain ways of behaving that was not an easy task to do. I couldn’t do the work that I do without Peter and this life. Truly. It provides me with perspective and love and safety and with that nothing seems insurmountable.”

We turn to discussing the movies they loved as kids. Cipkowski recalls the art deco movie theatre in Copake where he saw The

Sting and Kramer calls forth his memories of family movie nights back in Maryland and the “life changing experience” of seeing Close Encounters Of The Third Kind for the first time and Blood Simple opening his eyes to filmmaking as an art form. Cipkowski then continues, all wryness wrung from him as another of his memories surfaces. There is a genuine sweetness welling up within him. “I’m sort of embarrassed to share this,” he says, “but I had a tattered, old pocket paperback I probably bought at the Copake Pharmacy in 1974 that was a history of the Oscars and had the winners listed. It was so tattered. Bill saw it that first weekend he came up for that visit.”

“When I saw that book,” says Kramer, “I thought, oh, we can really talk about stuff. Peter is a culture vulture. He sees everything There’s a certain sort of energy you carry through your life of loves and interests and

Did either think he would ever get married? They weren’t twenty-something when it happened. Was there a kind of surrender involved in their falling in love at this stage of their lives? “It was a surprise, yes,” says Cipkowski. “When something like this happens to you, you have to lean into the humility—or like you said, the surrender. You discover so much about yourself, and you have to deal with work and although it’s hard and it’s sometimes painful, there’s a remarkable and astonishing release and comfort in the experience.”

“It almost sounds as if you’re talking about the experience of recovery,” I offer.

“It’s not unlike the surrender of recovery to say that I want this,” Kramer agrees. “I want my life to be healthy. And I thus have to make decisions that are healthy. You have to want it What is Step One? Step One is admitting you’re powerless. Each person has to admit to wanting it in a healthy relationship. It was all a great surprise. I feel very lucky.”

In 1880, the Hillsdale Herald wrote about how lucky anyone was to be able to live in such a bucolic region. The article mentioned bass fishing and going to Bash Bish Falls. It ends with “and time would fly along so that the happy searcher for health and amusement would be loathe to leave till October leaves began to fall and the bittersweet grew scarlet.” How does time fly along for the two in Hillsdale? Are they ever comfortable with doing nothing? “Well, Bill has a hard time with doing nothing,” says Cipkowski. “I’ve been spending most of this summer here in Hillsdale and have been doing a lot of gardening. I’ve begun to see changes already and just this morning noticed some color on the bigroot geraniums. It’s a wonderful feeling to see that change. It’s going to be hard to pull myself away to head back to LA. I’m so programmed to see that change and to welcome it and to have that experience.”

“Peter has been cultivating this garden since 1993,” says Kramer.

“There was already a garden here,” Cipkowski says. “This is a house that was part of a colony of women from the 1920s and 1930s. This was a tenant farm on a larger farm that belonged to the Collins family. He was a congressman who served in President Polk’s administration. The main farmhouse burned down during World War I around 1918. The other farmhouses then became occupied by a group of women from New York City—literary women, scientific women, women who were in ‘Boston marriages.’ They were led by Elizabeth Sherwood who occupied this house and this barn. They gardened here and the gentleman from whom I bought the house—the gentleman who tapped me when I was 12 and asked if I could mow his lawn—bought it from their estate. It’s a wonderful little colony of houses and the others, as back then, are now occupied by different people. This house was named Dooryard by that first colony of ladies after the Whitman poem. There are still peonies from their original garden. One of the ladies was a peonies specialist from the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. I’ve brought in a lot of native stuff.”

What has gardening taught him over the last 30 years? “Stability. Continuum. It allows me to accept my own advancing years. I get lost in it.”

And yet each man has found himself in surrendering to the other. A humility has been discovered in Hillsdale. They no longer have the need to brave the weather alone. They have together found their way home.

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art Steve McQueen artiStry at Dia Beacon

As it celebrates turning 50, the venerable art Mecca’s mission remains realizing an artist’s vision—including the celebrated British-born Hollywood director’s epic installation. | PictureS + WorDS

By Dan KoDay

It’s not just the art that makes a museum worth visiting, it’s the overall experience—something I was reminded of on a recent trip to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art outside Copenhagen. Bad timing and an unpredictable Scandi summer rain had rendered the revered museum’s seaside sculpture gardens somewhat of a bust, but as I approached Dia Beacon’s earth-toned, unassuming brick facade on a splendid Hudson Valley summer afternoon, I knew I was in for a redemptive treat.

This year, the Dia Art Foundation is celebrating its 50th year, so finding the Dutchess County museum with a halo glow around it proved most fitting. Manicured grounds filled with chirping birds and a stylish al fresco dining area washed in warm, natural sunlight greeted me. But with just 90 minutes before closing, I couldn’t waste much time basking in it. On this particular day, the mission was to see Steve McQueen’s Bass, a subterranean exhibit that would contrast with the sunny day above ground.

The British artist and filmmaker known for directing the Oscar-winning best picture 12 Years A Slave as well as the acclaimed Michael Fassbender starring vehicle, Shame, hand-selected the lower levels of Dia Beacon for his latest installation during the foundation’s momentous year. “The McQueen project reflects Dia’s ambition and commitment to working with artists and how the artist chooses the space they want to work in,” Donna De Salvo, Dia Beacon’s senior adjunct curator of special projects, says.

state of the art British film director

Dia was founded just five years after McQueen’s birth in 1974, and Dia Beacon opened in May 2003 as a home for the collection; today, there are 12 locations and sites. Three— Dia Beacon, Dia Bridgehampton and Dia Chelsea—include changing exhibitions while the other nine act as permanent artist sites.

Steve McQueen’s installation, Bass, fuses color, light and sound to upend one’s perception of space and time.

Like with their latest partnership with McQueen, Dia is known for working collaboratively with artists and allowing them to take larger risks, and the foundation also has a history of repurposing industrial buildings. So, it’s fitting when, on closer inspection, I found out that the site of Dia Beacon was originally a Nabisco box-making factory. Derelict for some time, the foundation’s then director Michael Govan—an amateur pilot—spotted the building from a plane flying over the Hudson Valley.

Today, the location features a mixture of permanent and rotating exhibitions—over the years, these have featured the works of artistic giants Robert Irwin, Rita McBride and Bruce Nauman— and maintains the foundation’s ethos of realizing an artist’s vision.

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que serra serra Artist Richard Serra’s monumental “Torqued Ellipses” series is among Dia Beacon’s most popular—and largest—installations.

“For us, the artist is at the center of everything we do,” Dia’s Director, Jessica Morgan, says. “When we work with an artist, it signals the start of a relationship that could span decades and include multiple exhibitions, public programs, publications and other collaborations. Dia also allows artists to conceive of work over the time and space they need, but rarely have the opportunity to embrace fully.”

McQueen’s work often deals with heavy and complex themes—identity, time, memory and history—and in my first moments witnessing Bass, I met with many of them. Bass is essentially an empty floor, but for the light and sound filling the space. The industrial feel of the space mixed with low bass sounds and shifting light from overhead light boxes continuously shifted my mood. The intentional play on light and sound mirrors a film’s structure, with the bass sounds recorded in the space and then played back over a roughly four-hour loop, with lighting rotating around every 40 minutes. It initially slowed me down; I found myself getting lost in time in the exhibit by the subtlest of color changes, which added to these mood shifts through warm neon yellows to Halloween-like oranges and then to purples, warm amber to calming baby blues and candy colors in between all instantly setting their tone.

Set against a backdrop of the foundation’s concrete floors, overhead sprinkler system and exposed PVC piping, like many of the

exhibitions at Dia, McQueen’s work invites you to walk around within it. The scale of the space reminded me of a gymnasium, indeed so large that children visiting the museum felt compelled to run around when I was there. Though I’ll admit—it was a little haunting for a playground—a woman within earshot told the docent she found it “scary.” I found it more peaceful in moments, but that’s why the work is so generous and open to interpretation.

De Salvo tells me this is something McQueen has always talked about: what people allow themselves to feel in the space. “Because it’s a very abstract work…It’s really about being in the work and feeling the vibrations that come out of bass music, which is a very low frequency,” De Salvo says. “McQueen was very interested in that idea, how it’s a frequency that’s felt more than heard. First, you feel it; and then you hear it.”

Upstairs from the exhibit, one of my favorite things about Dia Beacon’s Riggio Galleries is that it requires you to peruse, get lost and keep moving throughout it. Starkly different from the lower level, which very much feels like a basement of sorts, the former factory’s past is on full display through its exposed brick, creaky wood floors, large windows and high ceilings with overhead skylights, which juxtapose the contemporary artwork. Like McQueen’s, many of them deal with the abstract. Every gallery, from its longer corridors to tiny closet-sized rooms, has new and exciting discoveries but lacks a congregation of people that generally stagnate around lengthy text panels—something Dia has avoided by placing laminated artist descriptions in discreet boxes.

The foundation provides free admission to its neighbors in Beacon, Fishkill and Newburgh, as well as free admission to residents of the Hudson Valley on the last Sunday of every month. In certain parts of the museum, I could hear the hum of the MetroNorth train pulling into Beacon Station, a quick ten-minute walk away. Its proximity has lured art admirers from the city, region and beyond since its opening, and it promises to continue to do so.

Alongside Richard Serra’s colossal Torqued Ellipses and Andy Warhol’s Shadows, Dia has an ambitious landscape project underway to transform eight additional acres of the campus into publicly accessible outdoor space. In the shadow of McQueen’s exhibition (ending in April 2025) the outdoor space will open to the public sometime next year and undoubtedly, it’ll prove to be Dia Beacon’s next great draw. GREAT BARRINGTON 21 ELM ST

in conversation

NIGEL BARKER, STRAIGHT UP

The superstar photographer, designer and television personality has added spirits to the mix. Of course he has.

By Todd PlummER

Nigel Barker is the ultimate multihyphenate. The world came to know his rugged good looks and buttery-smooth British accent during his tenure as a longstanding judge on America’s Next Top Model alongside supermodel/host, Tyra Banks. Barker has been a longstanding component of New York City’s fashion the 1990s—and a weekend visitor turned resident of Woodstock, NY for nearly as long. As a photographer, Barker has shot epic editorials for the likes of Town & Country, GQ, Tatler and many more, and as a spokesperson, he’s worked with mega brands including Sony and Microsoft. He hosted a popular pandemic-era podcast Shaken & Stirred in which he shared a cocktail with his guests, which in part has inspired his latest venture: The Barker Company, a line of ready-to-drink martinis, launching this fall with an espresso martini as well as a first-tomarket cappuccino martini.

We pinned down this renaissance man learn more about his love for the region and quiet moments that spark his inspiration.

oh, snap! Barker has worked for top magazines including Town & Country, GQ and Tatler; (opposite) the launch of The Barker Company features the Woodstock resident’s new alcohol brand.

you belong with me Barker, with wife Cristen Chin Barker, and kids Jack and Jasmine in Woodstock; (opposite, from top) Barker and Tyra Banks; shoot with a winning contestant on America’s Next Top Model; Taylor Swift (Nigel’s Version).

Tell me about your ready-to-drink venture. The Barker Company is the first time I’ve put my name on anything. While hosting 135 episodes of Shaken & Stirred, we did taste tests of all these different cocktails with our celebrity guests, and we quickly established that one of the most popular cocktails amongst female guests was espresso martinis—but there were very few if any good ones in the ready-to-drink space. One of my good friends is the former CEO of Veuve Clicquot and he had a good knowledge of the business, so we thought it’d be fun to create something ourselves.

What attracted you to this area?

REO PENED FO R LUNCH!

Thursday, Friday & Saturday 11:30–2:30

When I first moved to New York City in 1997, I shared a very cool loft apartment in Tribeca with an artist named Ford Crull. He loved Woodstock and said, “Why don’t we go up there and I can show it to you?” We went up and I loved it immediately. I married my wife in 1999, and we used to bring our kids up when they were little, and were looking forever until finally we found a place we fell in love with—it’s a bit like a Tribeca loft actually, with high ceilings and a lot of open space, unlike a lot of the Woodstock homes with small rooms that ramble from room to room.

Has living in Woodstock changed you?

Living in Woodstock stimulates my photography in significant ways. The thing you get from being in the city is that rush, but up here there’s a beauty, and you appreciate the seasons—and all of that is primal and grounding. It makes you look deeper and consider things more and pay attention.

How has the area changed?

When I first moved up, I had a Land Rover, and we clearly had the smartest car in the area. But now my old Land Rover is one of thousands, and you also see McLarens and Ferraris. A lot of people have moved up from the city. Some of my

old photo assistants have houses up here now. It’s a different, eclectic crowd. But people treat me like a local now, so it’s quite sweet.

What’s your perfect day in Woodstock?

The perfect thing about Woodstock is the mountain air. I like to wake up and go to Cooper Lake. I’ll take some coffee and there are some rocks there that I like to sit on and ponder the world. The great thing is that when you’re there, your cellphone doesn’t work, so you’re trapped with your thoughts which in this day and age is quite rare. The Garden Café Woodstock is a vegetarian spot that’s great for lunch, with the freshest of ingredients. I’d also look forward to our farmers market—on weekends they cater to tourists, but on a weekday it’s a market for people in the area, and it’s almost like a town meeting. I’ll see lots of my neighbors with their dogs and families just buying their goods for the week.

LOVE. TALENT. MAGiC.

couple goals “We know that when one of us is strong, the other can rest. We’ve always got each other’s back,” says Robert Novogratz about working with his wife and collaborator, Cortney, here from their home in the Berkshires.

FGreat Barrington-based design superstars

ROBERT AND CORTNEY NOVOGRATZ create transformative homes as featured in the must-get book, The Novogratz Chronicles.

BY EDUARDO RODRÍGUEZ & HERMAN VEGA

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WiLLiAM WALDRON

or more than a quarter century, Robert and Cortney Novogratz have dazzled with their remarkable ability to transform historic properties, their stylish line of furniture and second-to-none housewares, blending classic charm with modern sophistication. As long-time admirers of their outsidethe-box design approach, we’re thrilled to see their new book, The Novogratz Chronicles (Princeton Architectural Press), doesn’t disappoint. This captivating tome offers a behind-the-scenes look at their creative process revealing trade secrets and highlighting their stunning Great Barrington, MA home (among others)—a perfect embodiment of their ‘Boutique Lifestyle’ design philosophy. It’s truly exciting to see the talented couple, whose work we’ve cherished for years, bringing their visionary touch to our region.

We caught up with the super talented Novogratzes for this exclusive and surprisingly revelatory conversation.

You’ve always been known to breathe new life into old properties with remarkable skill. What inspired your foray into the world of renovation? We bought our first home while planning our wedding—a condemned building from 1829 that needed a lot of love. We found our career, or maybe it found us, but that was the start. The seed was planted right there.

Collaborating closely with a partner, as you both do every day, can be rewarding and challenging. How have you both managed to maintain harmony and support each other?

We’re truly a team, but there have been moments when we’ve lost our way. We share both our wins and our losses. Our goals are aligned—we both want to succeed for our family, and we genuinely enjoy the blend of work and family life. We know that when one of us is strong, the other can rest. We’ve always got each other’s back.

What insights have you gained about yourselves through transforming historic buildings into forever homes?

We may never tackle another landmark property again—there’s just too much expense involved, and we’re not purists. We believe in honoring a home’s past while bringing it into the future.

Which of your projects have tested you the most? Which achievement fills you with the most pride?

Our most recent home was a real challenge, even after all these years. The pandemic hit, and it was our first—and probably last— landmark project. Each home brings joy in its own way, and each one is unique to that time in our lives: which child was born, what was

happening. I think our proudest moment is still ahead of us. The best is yet to come.

How have you balanced the demands of business and family life with your seven children?

Balance is a myth. We blend work and family life as best we can. There are moments when things are going well professionally, but maybe our kids are struggling, and times when we’ve passed on opportunities because family always comes first. We work together to divide and conquer, but there’s

family rooms Their signature style permeates throughout the family home in Great Barrington, MA. “We found a gem of a house built in 1917, it was grand but small at the same time,” says Robert Novogratz.

never perfect balance. Life brings wins and hardships—that’s just how it goes.

Your designs are known for their delightful surprises and quirky elements. Where do those come from?

We both love color and aren’t afraid to use it. We love art, a vibe, a feeling—a place that feels happy. There are many great designs out there, but it’s the energy and sense of surprise and humor that make a space special. Robert always brings art into a project, and that’s our secret. We’re visual people who love one-of-a-kind pieces and spaces that feel unique and reflect the personality of the people who live there.

What advice do you give to other designers starting out?

Take risks—your eye will never lie to you. Have a point of view. Be unique and stay true to what you do best.

Did 9/11 impact your decision to make Great Barrington your home base?

Yes, indeed. After witnessing 9/11 and having four small kids with nowhere to run to, we decided that a home outside of New York City would be wise. We fell in love with the Berkshires, recognizing our family could enjoy the area year-round. The love of nature we craved, our passion for the arts and the endless activities that are there. It helped that we found a gem of a house built in 1917, it was grand but small at the same time, manageable on just one acre of beautiful land. Rural but in walking distance to a market.

A spot to call our forever sanctuary, a true shelter for our busy family—but it’s the people in the Berkshires and the surrounding towns that make it so special. All types, which we love. Casual elegance will always be the real Berkshires to me.

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KLOCKE ESTATE MANiA iS HERE

Brandy and other delights await in our region’s latest must-try-now distillery and restaurant.

BY ISABELLA JOSLiN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERiC MEDSKER

Nestled in the hills of Columbia County, Klocke Estate isn’t just another brandy distillery—it’s a destination. Officially open in July, Klocke Estate offers a 160-acre paradise featuring orchards, vineyards and a fine-dining restaurant (see page 69). With panoramic views of the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson Valley, this estate promises an unparalleled experience for both brandy and culinary enthusiasts.

Upon arriving at 2554 County Route 27, just a ten-minute drive from Hudson, visitors are greeted by a winding gravel road flanked by rows of apple trees and grapevines. This leads to the estate’s crowning jewel: a beautiful bar and restaurant situated on a hilltop. Here, seasonal American fare infused with French elegance takes center stage, echoing the traditions of famed brandy regions such as Cognac and Calvados while embracing the enduring farm-to-table movement prevalent in this region of the country.

The culinary wizardry at Klocke Estate is headed by Executive Chef Becky Kempter. A California native with roots in the elevated local food scene, Kempter brings a wealth of experience from her time at an organic farm in Tannersville, the Deer Mountain Inn and a wedding venue in Port Jervis. Her menu is a testament to her diverse background.

Complementing the food is an extensive cocktail menu, mainly focused on brandy. Highlights include an appletini crafted from unaged apple brandy and fresh honeycrisp apple juice. For those who prefer hops or classic cocktails, local craft brews and timeless concoctions are also available. Despite the high caliber of the offerings, Kristine Danks, the general manager of hospitality, emphasizes that the restaurant maintains an unpretentious, welcoming atmosphere. Pricing is designed to reflect the quality and care put into each dish, with small bites ranging from $10 to $12, entrees from $40 to $50 and desserts around $15.

The architecture and interior design of Klocke Estate is a feast for the eyes. BarlisWedlick Architects is responsible for

like klocke work From the moment you’re in Klocke Estate, your notion of how epic a brandy distillery and restaurant can really be is tested. Wow.

the structure while Ken Fulk, an Architectural Digest 100 interior designer renowned for his work with celebrities such as Pharrell Williams and Gigi Hadid, decorated the estate. From the fresco mural in the lobby to the marbled bar overlooking the patio, every detail has been carefully selected.

The vision for Klocke Estate began a dozen years ago, culminating in the purchase of the property in January 2018. Under the leadership of John Frishkopf, they initiated agricultural operations in 2018 and began construction during the pandemic. They have since planted 60 acres of grapes and apples using regenerative farming methods. The community, proud and supportive of its farming history, has embraced

A ten-minute drive from Hudson, visitors are greeted by a winding gravel road flanked by rows of apple trees and grapevines. This leads to the estate’s crowning jewel: a beautiful bar and restaurant situated on a scenic hilltop.

Klocke Estate as a positive addition to Columbia County. And in return, says Frishkopf, “We have embraced the local community, from supporting Columbia Memorial Health, the local hospital, to giving tours to high school students, to supporting the local arts organizations.”

Frishkopf, a Boston native who moved to Hudson with a dream of creating a world-class brandy distillery, reflects on his decision: “There are a number of other major reasons for coming to the Hudson Valley, not least of which is the natural beauty of the area. That New York State is supportive of craft beverages and of farming communities was a factor. Also, the Hudson Valley is a center of farm-to-table agriculture and with that is a sophisticated appreciation of the cuisine and the farm products that goes with it. We incorporate those local farm products into the restaurant offerings and into our spirits. The top reason to come to the Hudson Valley was the unique terroir of the area that is ideal for growing both cider apples and grapes intended for brandy production. It’s rare to find a region that is ideal for both.”

Klocke Estate now offers a tour at 3pm on Fridays and Saturdays and they have plans to expand this program in the coming months. Limited to eight people, these tours will delve into the estate’s history, agricultural practices and brandy-making processes, culminating in a tasting session. Huzzah!

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zero proof Small Talk, a cozy, rustic, open-late boîte—with a pop-up gallery upstairs—is Woodstock’s “It” spot for unexpected, don’t-call-it-a-mocktail non-alcoholic, elevated drinks. Salud!

Yes, It’s Worth It

Klocke Estate’s buzz is justified and The Hereafter and Mel The Bakery continue Hudson’s successful culinary Run.

By Hal Rubenstein

We have created a culture that claims to crave originality, but in practice, thrives on repetition and duplication. On television, we’ve witnessed seven Law & Order franchises, five versions of CSI and four out of seven NCIS iterations are still running on CBS. A variation of Ralph Lauren’s name is sewn into half a dozen different labels. There are more than three dozen Nobu restaurants around the globe. Absolut offers 12 flavors of varying drinkability (Can anyone swallow Absolut Vanilla?). Oreo has produced more than 80 takes on its once iconic cream sandwich cookie. There are already four Carbone restaurants, with more to come. And ’tis the season to order the ever-ghastly pumpkin spice latte at any of the 17,068 Starbucks located around the country. No wonder, when asking someone “What’s new?” one hears the all-too-often reply, “Same old same old.”

It ain’t easy being unique. And yet freshness, singularity and the unexpected are the very qualities that make new experiences exciting and prime our senses for wondrousness. You should never stop searching for them, because when you find one, it’s impossible to keep from smiling.

KLOCKE ESTATE

Though the venue opened this past July with a low-key ribbon cutting as opposed to a more celebratory fireworks laden, weekend long gala, management can hardly claim a “soft” opening, because if you live within 30 miles of its mountaintop locale, you knew for months that the Klocke Estate was coming. That awareness generated an unabated, unofficial motorcade ascending the long and winding road—itself wired for heat in icy conditions—up Klocke’s 160 acres of regenerative apple orchards and vineyards to its centerpiece: the BarlisWedlick designed restaurant/bar/distillery.

Enchantment envelops the moment you get out of your car and look out from the back of the estate. The Thomas Coleworthy vistas that face the Catskills are stunning. Though the days are getting too short to take advantage of it for a few months, sunset here is bliss inducing.

task master Klocke Estate’s Executive Chef Becky Kempter’s formidable task is making each plated item a standout.

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oh, brandy Klocke’s brandy-obsessed Co-Founder John Frishkopf proudly shows the estate’s twin massive burnished copper stills to inquiring visitors.

But it’s not like Klocke suffers from a lack of captivating visuals. While getting a tour of its two massive, awesome (here the word has validity) burnished copper stills led by Klocke’s brandy-obsessed co-founder John Frishkopf (partnered in business and life with Brett Mattingly), it’s impossible not to imagine him, standing between these two magical contraptions, as a 100 proof Willy Wonka. But as glorious as the summit view and antique booze machines are, that’s not what had us swooning. If Frishkopf and Mattingly suddenly decided that the only items on their menu were Bumble Bee tuna and cottage cheese with canned peaches, I’d come back to Klocke in a heartbeat, because this place is gorgeous. At this point in his career, extolling the delights of Ken Fulk’s minimalism-bedamned interior design acumen is almost as redundant as praising Céline Dion’s bravura solo on the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Olympics. Sophisticated yet welcoming, elegant but enveloping, Fulk boasts the uncanny talent of knowing how to make indulgent glamour appear casually cool, like a Brunello Cucinelli cashmere crew neck. He also makes you want to renovate your house the moment you get home, so that your dining chairs are this comfortable, your kitchen island is lit with the

glass globes over this bar and your bedroom walls are covered in the dining room’s slate grey iridescent crushed velvet.

Luckily, Executive Chef Becky Kempter’s menu boasts options not easily upstaged. Not surprisingly, at Klocke, the intricate cocktail, brandy and wine selections are far more extensive than the dining options (order the house sweet vermouth on the rocks, probably the first time you have ever savored this wine on its own), so Kempter’s formidable task is to make each plated choice a standout. She comes close to achieving that with a savory focaccia that demands you slather on it as much garlic confit as possible and the hell with its breathy aftermath, a slightly sweet but smoothly satisfying chicken liver mousse that gets added zip from brandy-soaked cherries and sautéed cipollini onions, and a vibrant steak tartare smartly elevated by a gremolata spiked with white horseradish. This isn’t fair, but I regularly regard scallops as a culinary swindle, because there never seems to be enough of them to satisfy a healthy appetite, or maybe it’s just because they look like bite sized canapés hiding out on dinner plate. However, Kempter’s golden discs are lushly succulent, their sweetness abetted by a chowder-like pool of corn and mushrooms, their nuttiness enhanced by shards of Tuscan kale. The black garlic rich au poivre sauce that bathes the sliced pork chop is spoon-worthy delicious, and the pork was cooked to the temperature requested, but the meat itself, though flavorful, was just tough enough to resist embracing its peppery veil. However, the thickly cut, meltingly tender sautéed duck breast is the stuff foodie dreams are made of, made even more irresistible by alternating each slice with one of its three invigoratingly diverse accompaniments: caramelized fennel, a peach based mostarda and a light leek soubise. Don’t overlook the sides of wilted greens served with an anchovyrich bagna càuda and the crispy potatoes tweaked by a chili infused salt.

I rarely fancy the neither-here-northereness of semifreddo, or yuzu-based anything. Don’t bypass Kempter’s yuzu tart with raspberry preserves and rose meringue, her chocolate semifreddo with espresso caramel or the almond cake with figs in Armagnac and mascarpone—three weightless, happily deceitful ways to please a sugar rush-loving sweet tooth.

We’ve only one qualm with our otherwise smashing times at Klocke Estate, though they aren’t alone in being the source of this grievance. A 20 percent “operations charge” is tacked onto all purchases at both the bar and in the dining room, ostensibly to facilitate production costs and the staff’s health coverage (according to the bartender). It’s not a tip. That’s a separate line item. Though jacking up prices accordingly instead might push certain menu items into the sticker shock danger zone, there’s an unavoidable scent of disingenuousness as more and more houses adopt this winceinducing add on, because it reveals that the actual cost of each menu selection is onefifth higher. Sometimes you’re just better off not knowing back of house details.

That irritation made me down my after-dinner Vin Santo way too quickly. After ordering another, I still admitted that the surcharge can’t dissuade me from returning to the Klocke Estate very soon. In fact, I’m looking forward to it even if that imagined sorry-ass can of Bumble Bee albacore winds up packed in water.

KLOCKE ESTATE

2554 County Route 27

Hudson, NY 12534

518.672.1166

hours: Wednesday & Thursday 5-9pm Friday-Sunday Noon – 9pm

Closed Monday & Tuesday Reservations via Resy

THE HEREAFTER

I don’t hang out here often enough to know if the barstools host a coterie of such faithful regulars that everybody knows their names, but if you ever daydreamed about opening the ideal neighborhood bar, it probably looks a lot like The Hereafter.

Though open less than a year, the place radiates a been-here-forever vibe as if it’s been a local stomping ground for as long as Hudson’s had antique stores, not because it looks old and worn, but because it feels luxuriantly lived in.

Take two steps inside the street front door, and you find yourself nearly in the middle of the almost square space, but instead of feeling on display, you’re immediately struck by the cozy but not

cramped, relax-your-shoulders intimacy of the room. The lighting is low and shadowy, flattering and slightly mysterious. Dark leather upholstered booths line the weathered, reclaimed wainscoted walls, with tall bar tables in the middle and comfy Dutch Arts and Crafts era bar stools lining the handsome, backlit dark wood bar. The recycled wood floor isn’t trying to hide its prior life. The tin ceiling was preexisting, but the ricocheting sound is more buzzy than loud. There’s no preferred or VIP area. Everything—the seating, the staff, even the owners Jeffrey Dubroff and Isi Laborde (who are often there)—feels within reach.

Two additional missing factors make The Hereafter so attractive. There are no TVs over the bar or suspended from the corners. You ain’t comin’ in for a coupla brewskis while you watch the game. Having previously worked at Park Slope’s popular Blueprint bar, Dubroff and Laborde understand the mission of the local tavern as an oasis rather than a tailgate substitute or pick-up spot. And whether intentional or serendipitous, the place radiates a

balance of cool and calm because you feel surrounded by locals rather than tourists. There’s no table hopping, no gaggles of boisterous groups overeager for another round of selfies. Most smartphones are on the tables turned upside down. You come to The Hereafter to talk with friends, go on an exploratory second date or to just forget about the turbulence outside.

You also come here to drink, because the 15 house-concocted cocktails are

deliberately idiosyncratic, complex without being forbidding and happily surprising. They’re divided into five categories: Fun, Eccentric, Classy, Seasonal and Deep, and while I can’t determine what the unifying components are for each category, the array is beckoning you to have an adventure in alcohol. For example, the ingredients in The Tiger: “tequila blanco, roasted pineapple brandy, mango and kaffir leaf cordial, lime, shaken and served with a

old soul Though opened less than a year, The Hereafter in Hudson radiates a been-here-forever vibe. It’s very cool.

cilantro salt rim” pretty much ensures that you aren’t making this at home, but give it a shot, because it beats the Hawaiian shirt off a Jimmy Buffett margarita. Equally enjoyable are the oregano infused bespoke gin that serves as the base of The House Dirty, the heady pairing of mezcal, sweet vermouth and pear brandy in Good Denim, the nippy sting of bourbon, absinthe and sassafras bitters that’s at the heart of a Grapefruit Dead and it makes sense that the addition of pine liquor, juniper and rosemary added to single malt whiskey would result in a cocktail called Trail Blazer. So, are you really going to stick with a vodka and soda?

And you also come to The Hereafter to eat. Though the menu is limited and claims to be offering small plates, it’s easy to assemble a very satisfying meal, because Chef Michelle Hunter—formerly of the wonderful Hamlet

& Ghost in Saratoga Springs, NY—wisely rejects buffalo wings and sweet potato fries to match for such inventive cocktails, in favor of more seductive choices such as grilled stone fruit in fish sauce (not nearly as weird as it sounds), mussels steamed in a light yuzu and chili broth, grilled squash glazed in coconut cream and pepper, bread from nearby Mel the Baker (see below), crisp endive salad laced with a brown butter vinaigrette, a chop-house-worthy hanger steak with an unexpected addition of blueberries to its chimichurri sauce and a very ample and wipe-the-plate-clean charcuterie board with terrific duck prosciutto.

There’s only one problem with The Hereafter. This isn’t Manhattan. Since there’s no public transport, someone has to drive home. Even if you scarf down the hanger steak solo, that’s not going to temper a breathalyzer score, so before walking into The Hereafter, decide who’s going to be the Good Samaritan. I know. Not fun. Should no one want to behave, however, The Riverton Hotel is right around the corner. Check in advance.

Maybe they have a room with your name on it. If so, bartender, I’ll have another.

THE HEREAFTER

721 Columbia Street Hudson, NY 12534

hours: Sunday & Tuesday –Thursday - 4pm ’til Midnight

Friday & Saturday - 4pm – 1am

Closed Monday

Reservations via Resy

MEL THE BAKERY

When world-class photographer-turnedbaker Norman Jean Roy abruptly decided to close his award-winning Breadfolks in Hudson two years ago and return to shutter bugging, a sizable chunk of

Columbia County’s population reacted as if they lived in Memphis and Elvis had just died. There are some still in mourning. Well, arise grief-stricken carb addicts! Nora Allen has come to save you and restore your love handles. The James Beard award-winning pastry chef has abandoned her Lower East Side location on Ludlow Street in NYC, appropriately relocating to Breadfolks’ original spot on Warren. Preceded by Allen’s deserved reputation, Mel The Bakery immediately generated the same long customer lines that were there previously. The uplifting difference is that unlike its predecessor, Mel’s makes more than five of everything, so if you don’t set up your lean-to in line at dawn, there’ll still be an ample selection when you show up to a shorter line at 10am.

It’s a bakery, not a café, though there are tables and chairs outside when weather is nice, there’s no indoor seating. No matter. Mel’s staff smiles, looks you in the eye, doesn’t get cranky when questioned about each pastry, nor do they box a large order as if doing you a big favor.

On one visit we ordered a country loaf, a sourdough boule, garlic knots, a plain croissant, blueberry muffin, veggie Danish, ham and cheese croissant, blackberry pie, a pistachio twice baked pastry, a tomato

tart, a cinnamon roll and a sandwich of smoked salmon, cream cheese and pickled onions on focaccia. I was handed the box of goodies at 10am. By 5pm, all that was left were half loaves of the breads, one garlic

knot and two bites of a tart. There we sat, just two of us, dazed but happy gluttons desperately in need of a treadmill. Allen’s croissant is perfect, with a crisp, darker than normal crust, and airy, cotton candy light layers in the middle. Allen’s smoked salmon focaccia is easily the best sandwich in town, maybe for miles. At the risk of enraging Lower East Side devotees of Russ & Daughters, it’s even more scrumptious and preferable than Russ & Daughters’ legendary lox and cream cheese on an everything bagel. It’s not because one is better than the other, but it’s just that Mel’s sandwich is unique. And that’s had me smiling big time.

MEL THE BAKERY

324 Warren Street Hudson, New York 12534 hours: Thursday – Sunday 9am-3pm Closed Monday – Wednesday

bread lightly James Beard awardwinning pastry chef Nora Allen has relocated to Breadfolks’ former spot on Warren Street in Hudson. Hallelujah!

More Than Zero

Don’t say mocktail: Non-Alcoholic drinks of every stripe are officially a movement. And how. |

When Mark Landsman, along with business partner Kat Bangs, took over the shoe-box space of what was once the late, great Shindig bar in Woodstock last year, Landsman, with the help of his friend, artist/craftsman Scott Chasse, renovated the space in just 19 days and reopened it as Small Talk, a cozy, rustic, open-late boîte—with a pop-up gallery upstairs hosted by Chasse—that fosters conversation and cocktails, proffered with a side of crispy chicken pot pie and a hearty charcuterie board. Given that Landsman also co-owns Elevated Wine & Spirits in Hunter (only took him and Chasse four days to build out this one), he leaned heavily on his knowledge of customer buying patterns and preferences thanks to the many tastings he’s hosted there. Recommended at Elevated is the Noughty Dealcoholized Sparkling Chardonnay, and what he doesn’t sell at Elevated, he’s learning to sell at Small Talk: Non-alcoholic (a.k.a. NA) cocktails, wines and beers. He pours a good amount of Kimmunity Kombucha, AL’s Classic and St. Agrestis Phony Negronis—the latter two made downstate—as well as ever-evolving riffs on long drinks made with house-made syrups and

By Anthony Giglio

infusions. If you’re looking for something to make at home, Landsman recommends using local tinctures from Mighty Moon Medicine, created with ingredients foraged here in the Catskill forests, and tangy ginger syrups from ImmuneSchein Ginger Elixirs, crafted in Saugerties. “The trend seems to be more toward bitter things, not syrupy, so I’m calling these tincture-y,” says Landsman.

His mention of bitter tracks, as the burgeoning—and booming!—non-alcohol beverage movement evolves (and distances itself) from the first wave of treacly, not-quitenaturally-flavored mocktails toward more sophisticated versions of actual cocktails.

cin cin Business

As Billy Paretti, CEO of CleanCo sums it up, “We’re all natural, 15 calories per shot max, no added sugar—it’s a like-forlike mixed drink, like our margarita: side by side, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. It’s so delicious, you couldn’t knock it.” CleanCo is the creation of Spencer George Matthews, a British television personality, entrepreneur and host of the podcast Big Fish With Spencer Matthews, who had a reputation as a party boy until he met and married fellow TV personality Vogue Williams, who helped him change his lifestyle. As Paretti tells the story, Matthews went to a party hosted by his sister-in-law, Pippa Middleton (yes, the future Queen of

partners Goldsmith and Wolfe launched Lapo’s, an NA Italian inspired aperitivo.

England’s sister), who thoughtfully served him a non-alcoholic ‘clean’ cocktail. “He thought it tasted terrible and told her he could do better— he’s fearless,” says Paretti. “He’s not a chemist or a mixologist but knows what a good cocktail tastes like.” He set out to do just that, raising funds and creating what’s now, says Paretti, the No.3 non-alcohol spirits brand globally, led by their top sellers, Clean T (tequila alternative) and Clean G (gin alternative).

CleanCo’s rise corresponds with a recent report by the International Wine and Spirits Review (IWSR)’s Drinks Market Analysis, which says that the NA category continues to grow, with the overall product volume increasing by 29 percent last year, with millennials and Gen Z representing 62 percent of the market share for these products.

The journey from drinker to dry is a common one in the NA business. CleanCo’s Matthews, as well as many others in the business, waking up one day and deciding he wanted to take a break. “Early on I felt great, slept better, lost weight, less stress… long story short, I thought the category was interesting,” says Sean Goldsmith, co-founder, with Trevor Wolfe, of The Zero Proof, a non-alcoholic beverage company based in Atlanta that imports, sells and distributes NA wine, spirits and cocktails to consumers through its website.

Together with Wolfe he imports three premium Scandinavian NA brands—Oddbird (from Sweden), ISH (Denmark) and Gnista (Sweden)—and they created Lapo’s (an Italian inspired aperitivo brand) and Saint Viviana (a premium domestic wine brand). “Our wines can be found on Michelin-star restaurants,” says Goldsmith proudly, “including Eleven Madison Park, Alinea, Next, Boka and Bacchanalia.”

While all this talk of abstinence might spell trouble for the alcohol business down the line, there’s hope of an emerging middle ground, according to that IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, being led by legal-aged Gen Zs who are more likely to fall into the ‘substituters’ group than ‘abstainers.’ This means that younger legal-aged recruits to no/low aren’t “all or nothing”—they switch between alcohol and other products.

“The space is getting complicated and noisy, but we offer the taste of the actual spirit without any effect on the body, and we do it in a natural way,” he says, “Like-for-like in a mixed drink is where we are, but our North Star is like-for-like neat—we’re not there yet, but we’ll get there.”

THE REGION’S LARGEST SELECTION LENNOX JEWELERS

Photo: Wil Stewart

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Cadillac’s Rap

With electric innovations on the rise, the storied American luxury auto manufacturer positions their EV offerings as the new “Standard of the World.” Dope. | By Simon Murray

Hip-hop arrived in the suburbs stealthily, and then all at once. Its clandestine arrival in the late 1990s coincided with a growing adoption of file-sharing services such as LimeWire, Kazaa and Napster, which allowed music fans of the budding Internet Age to plunder the world’s record collections one song at a time. After sufficiently installing a variety of irreversible malware on the family computer, downloaded songs were then burned onto blank CDs and played to deafening degrees with the help of car subwoofers.

Hailing from the toughest neighborhoods of New Orleans, the 504 Boyz almost certainly did not set out to make music for young white boys. But their exuberantly catchy songs—including “Tight Whips”—spanned the cultural divide with killer hooks.

We roll tight whips, everyday Bentley, Lex, Mercedes and Escalades We roll tight whips, everyday Hustlin’ to make the paper, but that’s OK

Of those four luxury car brands mentioned, only one was intimately known to me. My good friend’s white-golden Escalade, with its second-row captain’s chairs, was the coolest

way imaginable to pull up to the movies. At the time, I knew very little of the Cadillac marquee, but thanks to the 504 Boyz and that SUV’s abundance of elegance and swagger, it was enough to carry the weight of one of the oldest automotive brands in the world.

Nearly two decades later, audio streaming services have largely supplanted digital piracy, hip-hop is decidedly mainstream and Cadillac is making a comeback.

How do you reimagine an icon? Well, it starts with adopting electric powertrains— something the Detroit-based manufacturer plans to roll out across their entire lineup in the next six years. The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ sounds like a nerdy brainiac, but it’s still got that presence and attitude that made it a favorite of both soccer parents and legit rappers. While the rear-end design has been called into question, the IQ has enough performance to make any styling misfires easily forgotten.

All four trims come with a 24-module Ultium battery pack of at least 200 kWh, powering a motor on each axle for all-wheel drive. The motors make a combined 650 horsepower and 615 pound-feet of torque in the regular version. Given a responsible right foot, Cadillac estimates a range of 460 miles

on a full charge, or ten miles above the initial estimate—not bad for weighing more than four tons. It also employs a flexible, highvoltage architecture that enables 800-volt DC fast charging, providing up to 100 miles of range in only ten minutes of charge time.

Of course, Cadillac makes much more than SUVs. And that’s where the 2024 Cadillac Celestiq comes into play. Cadillac’s slogan, The Standard of the World, originated in 1908 after the company won what was then considered to be the Nobel Prize of engineering. Starting at $340,000, the Celestiq is an attempt at reclaiming that standard. This Bentley-grade, hand-built, luxury sedan is merely aspirational for many of us, but its styling will surely make its way into the company’s other offerings, just like the shared design between its slate of EV SUVs—from the IQ to the Vistiq all the way down to the entry-grade Optiq.

Most luxury cars boast infotainment displays measuring around a foot of width, but the Celestiq’s is all of 55 inches (along with the IQ), spanning the entire width of the car’s dashboard. Rear-seat occupants can also enjoy their own 12.6-inch displays for watching movies, checking the internet or controlling the car’s stereo system. That’s either too much screen time for kids these days, or sadly, the new normal for American parents.

As for its performance, a 111-kWh battery pack and a two-motor, all-wheel-drive propulsion system will offer an estimated 600 horsepower and 640 lbs.-ft of torque with a range of 300 miles on a full charge. American automotive excellence? You bet.

So, is this really the inspiration for a new generation of cars and adolescents? Well, as always, only time will tell. I’m sure a rap lyric will announce the answer before too long.

GOING to TOWN

small town big doings in

Rhinebeck, NY

The charming and historic town of Rhinebeck is nestled between the Catskills and the Berkshires on the banks of the Hudson River. Its crossroads of Market and Montgomery Streets feature delightful independent shops featuring regional talent and a local character while its unique restaurants tap into the area’s farm-to-table culture that makes the region so unique.

Hummingbird Jewelers

Celebrating 46 years as Rhinebeck’s fullservice jewelers. Specializing in on premises custom design, repurposing of family heirlooms, antique restoration and repair. Hummingbird has curated an exceptional collection of over 75 unique designers. 23A East Market Street / 845-876-4585 hummingbirdjewelers.com

Paper Trail

Welcome to Rhinebeck’s destination for fine paper, fanciful jewelry and stylish gifts. Delight in colorful, inspired discoveries for you and your home, hand-selected and artfully presented.

Open Monday–Saturday 11–6, Sunday 11–5 6423 Montgomery St #2 / 845-876-8050 papertrailrhinebeck.com

Rhinebeck Area chamber of commerce

The Rhinebeck Area Chamber of Commerce provides a platform to promote leadership development within the business community. Rhinebeck won Best Small Town for Shopping two years in a row. With over 30 eateries, Rhinebeck is a dream trip for foodies. 23 F, E Market Street / 845-876-5904 rhinebeckchamber.com

Adel Chefridi

Adel Chefridi Fine Jewelry showcases original, handcrafted jewelry, blending artistry with cultural richness for a unique experience.

47 East Market Street | 845-684-5185 chefridi.com

plugged in Cadillac’s four EV offerings promise to set the global standard on excellence. How are they doing?

TOur Shopping Center

Stuyvesant Plaza isn’t a mall, silly. It’s better.

By Sarah Carpenter

he last time I went to a mall it was like a horror movie. Once a wild ecosystem of teenagers and their moms killing time, redefining their looks and dizzily dropping cash on things they don’t need, the place was now hollow. Nearly silent. Maybe half the stores were shuttered (literally, the big steel security grilles in place of what used to be the entrances to the Wet Seal, Charlotte Russe, et al.). And for the first few minutes, as I looked for the nail salon that supposedly

Litchfi l ’s arinnin stination

v i

Shop thoughtful wellness essentials, clean beauty, lifestyle, an gift car s in the boutique.

operated out of this graveyard, I was alone in there. Scenes from Dawn Of The Dead flashed through my mind and I found myself judging which stores would likely have the best weaponry for a zombie apocalypse. Weirdly, I was still able to get a Wetzel’s Pretzel. And I did, for nostalgia’s sake.

Sadly, many of America’s malls succumbed to this fate after suffering from a wild one-two punch: the rise of online shopping and the COVID-19 pandemic. But the dopamine hits from ordering

something on your phone and getting it at your door aren’t what we talk about when we talk about retail therapy. This can only be achieved by making ‘shopping’ an actual destination. And many brands need shopping to be a destination because it’s quite hard to reach an online-only audience in today’s competitive internet landscape, but those who have made a comeback have had to do things differently.

The answer to the prayers of companies feeling this struggle and any aspiring shopaholics within range of the capital city is Stuyvesant Plaza. Call your friends. Get out of the group text and into the car. Follow the sacred commandment, coined when it first became safe for women to practice consumerism without a man by her side: Shop ’til you drop.

It doesn’t feel quite right to call it a mall. Stuyvesant Plaza has everything I used to love about the mall instead in an open-air retail destination with mid-century designs and cornhole on the lawn. There are local mainstays such as family owned and operated Pearl Grant Richmans (celebrating

65 years in business), notable national retailers including Sur La Table and Warby Parker and practical local staples such as Primal: Your Local Butcher and independently owned book shop The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza.

It’s not just the proximity of various retailers that makes shopping IRL here attractive, there are also experiences you can only have in a brick-and-mortar establishment. For instance, Sur La Table offers cooking classes and the opportunity for participants to receive ten percent off any purchase while in-store. And beloved Apple Barrel Home + Pantré is poised to begin offering in-store workshops, says Stuyvesant Plaza general manager Rachel Ferluge.

The history of Stuyvesant goes back multiple generations, and Ferluge has firsthand experience. Her mother used to work at the Plaza, so she’d visit the shops often as a child and even got her first job at a women’s clothing store here.

Six-and-a-half decades after its 1959 grand opening, Stuyvesant has grown from just 18 stores to more than 60, and the

Plaza is adamant about preserving its retro look and feel. “When you stroll around the Plaza, you’ll pass by mid-century touches such as benches, planters and patio seating on our newly constructed green space, dubbed ‘The Lawn,’” Ferluge says.

It’s easy to spend a day up here. I then ask the Stuyvesant Plaza expert at this point, what a perfect crisp, fall day at the Plaza looks like. Ferluge responded that she’d start at Uncommon Grounds, the local coffee shop, to pick up a morning brew before visiting favorite shops Pottery Barn and Rad Soap. “I’d also get a permanent bracelet at Lola Saratoga and indulge in a personalized styling session with the ladies at Circles, our women’s boutique

carrying name brand labels,” she says. For lunch, I’d request a patio spot at Josie’s Table so I could sip a glass of wine and start with an order of their delicious truffle parm fries. I’d end my day picking up a few steaks for dinner at Primal and a bottle of wine from Top Shelf.” It honestly sounds great.

Ferluge also reveals that imminently (fall) two new local businesses will be opening within the Plaza: Union Hall Supply Co., a men’s clothing retailer/ kombucha and craft beer tasting room (a wild, maybe genius, combo) and Simone’s Kitchen, a Mediterranean eatery.

The open-air parking is also a perk not to be taken for granted. Once you and your pals have acquired overstuffed bags of merchandise, you won’t be spending your evening yoking it all through a labyrinthine parking structure in search of your car. Now you can take it all home and still have enough energy for the best part of shopping day: fashion show evening.

Who’s ready to join me at our next retail therapy sesh? I’ll drive.

| hundred bucks

How to Spend $100: TJ Maxx & Marshalls

It’s hunting season again in these POPULAR—AND ENTICING—BARGAIN jungles.

Pictures + Words by Robyn Perry Coe

Yes, you can have it all. In fact, you need it all, because the weather keeps changing. Hello fall, the season in which we celebrate getting dressed again! Also, the kids keep growing, and they need it all, all over again.

Off-price meccas TJ Maxx and Marshalls (plus sporty younger sibling, Sierra, with a new Albany store—but that’s

another column), owned by the same parent company (ticker symbol TJX), are virtually the same store in person, featuring past and current season stock, overstocks and store brands (“Made in Italy”).

During back-to-school season, stop here first for kids, workout and pet gear; backpacks, lunchboxes, water bottles (Hydro Flask, $24.99); transitional clothes for the whole family (cotton top,

to the maxx What could be better than spending an afternoon bargain hunting at either TJ Maxx or Marshalls—or both?

$19.99); suitcases and travel needs; electronic and art supplies (three journals, $7.99).

Specialty items I found at half price or less: K-Beauty (Ready to go full snail, or just snail-curious?) CosRx cream $16.99, detergent sheets, French knives, travelfriendly toothpaste pellets, luxury lipstick.

Home goods to help you decorate, entertain and reset for the season include towels, sheets (check the fabric content), quick-dry sponges ($3.49), Italian soaps ($5.99 for three), cleaning supplies, gourmet ingredients (Stonewall Kitchens jam, $5.99), cookware (Le Creuset lidded casserole for fall bakes), candles ($7.99), little ghost chocolates ($6.99).

Beyond my budget here but a word to the wise: save hundreds on new designer clothes, accessories and beauty online (search “The Runway” on tjmaxx.tjx.com, “The Designer Shop” on marshalls.com), including shoes by Intentionally Blank (which has a boutique in Hudson) and G.H. Bass Weejuns for that back-toschool savoir faire; Chloé bags; Gucci wallets; Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen sunglasses. Life’s too short to wear dull accessories.

In a sea of pumpkin spice and Hello Kitty, use your discerning eye and don’t miss the clearance racks. If you aren’t sure, buy it. You can always bring it back. Returns are better than regret. Happy hunting.

a sea of pumpkin spice and

mode| dirt

Fall Folliage Facts

Stunning harvest season arrangements you definitely want to try. Like Now.

Pictures + Words by Mira

Peck

One of the pleasures and privileges of being a horticulturist and floral designer is that you get to connect with the earth’s cycles and express the changes of the seasons in your designs. When you arrange with flowers from a local grower or your own garden, you get to create

beauty with materials that reflect specific moments in time. You might worry that as the temperatures drop there’ll be a scarcity of materials to use, but fall is the quintessential “harvest time” that we’ve been waiting for all year. Here are some of my favorites.

Fall at your local garden center usually means a plethora of annual Belgian mums, which are extremely helpful in containers, but my favorite variety to arrange with is the perennial Chrysanthemum “Hillside Sheffield Pink” that virtually glows in the landscape and in the vase. Dusty rose petals with an open cheerful center put on a show through November.

Panicle Hydrangeas put on a white billowy show in August, but it’s in fall that they start to reveal a deeper beauty, when their petals start to mottle and age, showcasing shades of pinks, rose and wine that are a dream to arrange with.

Dahlias. Another star of late summer, Dahlia colors start to sweeten as temperatures cool in fall, and it’s at the end of their season when

the largest “dinner plate” varieties really start to show up. Dahlias can’t take heavy frost, but the last two years in Dutchess County, NY we’ve had dahlias into the second week of November.

As for berries and fruiting branches, crabapples are a crowd pleaser, and there’s also hawthorn, clusters of hanging Viburnum berries, orange winterberry varieties and even beauty berry (Callicarpa dichotoma) which showcases a unique shade of lavender. Seed heads from grasses, snipped from your garden or from a field or even roadside can add movement and shimmer to your designs.

The spirit of the local cut-flower movement emphasizes locally sourced, seasonal materials, with a natural and organic design aesthetic. You can even use unconventional materials such as foraged weeds. In a workshop with the nation’s leading farmer-florist, we used the seed heads of yellow dock because it had turned a perfect shade of rose that particular morning.

For those with eyes to see, there’s a banquet of beauty to be had in the fall, even as the temperatures fall and plants start to fade.

tickled pink Perennial Chrysanthemum

“Hillside Sheffield Pink” are great to arrange with because they virtually glow in the landscape as well as in the vase. Pretty.

Waldorf Education in the Berkshires for Toddlers through Teens.

It’s All About

That Bass

Kingston-based musician Gail Ann Dorsey answered David Bowie’s call. Boy, did she ever. | By Sean

McAlindin

Music is music. If it moves you, it moves you. If it doesn’t, then it doesn’t.”

So simple, yet so profound—which makes a lot of sense coming from a bass player.

Gail Ann Dorsey, one of the greatest session bass players of all-time, came of age in an all-Black neighborhood in 1960s West Philadelphia. The “surprise” baby of the family, she grew up surrounded by the music of her older siblings, soaking in the sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Olivia Newton-John and The Carpenters.

“I always knew I wanted to play music,” she says. “It was a language I wanted to speak—it meant more than words did.”

Dorsey taught herself to play guitar with some boys across the street who jammed

on Grand Funk Railroad, Chicago and Heart. Then, she discovered Queen.

“The guitar playing, the songs, the intricacy of it—it’s all so unique and original,” she says. “If they played three nights in Philly, I was there all three nights. They’re still the greatest band I’ve ever seen live.”

Little did she know that two decades later she’d sing Freddie Mercury’s part on “Under Pressure” in a classic duet with another pop rock legend, David Bowie.

After brief stints in LA and NYC, Dorsey jetted to London where she found work as a session player in the busy pub scene. Her first big break came at a session for Boy George.

“I’d play three or four times a week,” Dorsey says. “It was just enough to eat, buy cigarettes, pay a little bit of rent, but I was

only 20 or whatever. I don’t really know the answer to how anybody finds their path. Everybody has a different way to reach their goals or dreams. But one thing that stands true is putting yourself out there and not saying no. That’s the first thing that has to be done and then you see where it leads you.”

After a dozen years of successful work in England, Dorsey connected with Sara Lee, a bassist for Gang of Four, The B-52s and Indigo Girls.

“Always nice to meet another female bass player because there weren’t very many of us,” she says. “Now there are hundreds of us, which is great to see.”

Dorsey then decided to move to Woodstock, NY for its community of artists and proximity to NYC. At first, she lived with Lee, then found

her own place in Kingston where she’s been for some 30 years.

In 1995, Dorsey was songwriting at the Bath, England home of Tears for Fears frontman Roland Orzabal when she got a was Bowie. He’d watched her play on television from a hotel room seven years ago and now he wanted her to join his band.

It was a blessing from the sky. I feel very fortunate. I must have some good karma somewhere.”

She hung up the phone and told Orzabal the news.

“He said, ‘If Bowie calls you, you have to go.’ I was terrified, to be honest. I didn’t know if I could handle his music. But what was beautiful about working with him is he had so much confidence and encouragement for all of his musicians. He was so giving and free, super funny, kind

and always joking. He was on our side. ‘There’s nothing you can’t do,’ he’d say. ‘You can do this.’ It was a growing experience for me. He was the most incredible mentor. It’s like being an apprentice to Michelangelo. I couldn’t have wished for anyone better. I don’t know why he called me.

Dorsey toured and recorded with Bowie through 2013 and is featured on albums Earthling, Heathen, Reality and The Next Day After years of session work with everyone from Gwen Stefani to Lenny Kravitz, The National and Ani DiFranco, she’s about to release her first solo record since 2004.

“I’ve never been a person who likes just one kind of music,” Dorsey says. “I want to play everything. But I think I’ll put a few things out and see how they live in a world. I feel like there’s something more to say.”

Gail Ann Dorsey performs at Tarrytown Music Hall, opening for Madeleine Peyroux on November 15 at 8pm.

MUSEUM GONE

gail storm The worldclass bass player and Woodstock resident loved working with David Bowie and other rock legends.

Chilly Temps, Sexy Beats

By Sean McAlindin

When summer winds chill and leaves begin to fall, it’s easy to start thinking about hibernation. I think we all know people who we simply don’t see between November and April. Sound familiar?

But if there’s one mental health tip I’ve learned since coming home to the East Coast, it’s that it’s best to stay active throughout the quiet months. One surefire way to manifest positive energy is to go see live music. So peep our colorful autumn

music lineup. It’s all right here in the mountains.

In Woodstock, Bearsville Theater roars forth with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco from October 11 to 13, Drive-by Truckers on October 21, Todd Rundgren on October 22 and 23, The Jayhawks on October 25, The Dresden Dolls on October 26 and 27, The Disco Biscuits on November 13 and Railroad Earth on November 15.

Levon Helm Studios features Kentucky indie folk group Bendigo Fletcher on October 26, English songwriter Robyn Hitchcock on November 6, Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold on November 14 and 15 and road-worn singer Willie

Watson on December 13. Up the lane, Colony Woodstock gathers local crooner Amy Helm on November 16, cover band extraordinaire Dead Man’s Waltz on November 22 and Los Angeles neo-jazz trio LA LOM on December 10.

While outdoor amphitheaters have closed for the season, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts continues to open its Event Gallery with the Hindustani slide guitar of Debashish Bhattacharya Trio on October 19, Vinny DePonto: Mind Reader on October 26 and Barcelona singers Las Migas on November 10.

Similarly, Saratoga Performing Arts Center fills up Little Spa Theatre with the sounds of Christian McBride and Ursa Major on October 24 and Django

Festival All Stars with Hot Club of Saratoga on November 22.

In Hudson, Park Theatre invites Boston troubadour Melissa Ferrick with Sweet Petunia on October 12 and Woodstock vocalist Alexis P. Suter on October 19, and Basilica Hudson hosts The Goddess Party’s “Parting of the Veils” on November 1 (see p. 26). Falcon Theater in Marlboro soars higher with Upstate fiddler Sara Milonovich & Daisycutter on October 19, Dallas-born composer Kolumbo on October 27, Deadgrass on November 2, Deerhoof guitarist Chris Cohen on November 3, Alisa Amador on November 16, Richard Julian on November 17, Brock, Lanzetti and Ogawa of Snarky Puppy on November 24 and The

Mahavishnu Project on December 12.

The Towne Crier of Beacon calls for string traditionalists

Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas on October 17, folk icon Tom Rush on October 19, Back to the Garden 1969’s “Hippie Halloween” on October 26 and The Klezmatics on December 8. Bardavon in Poughkeepsie hosts comedians Jessica Kirson on October 26 and Preacher Lawson on November 2, while Ulster Performing Arts Center in Kingston brings pop pianist

Ben Folds on November 9, Sammie Rae & The Friends on November 11, punk rock legend Patti Smith on November 16 and bluegrass phenoms

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings on November 30.

In Kingston, Tubby’s makes room for Photay on October 18, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal and Pictureplane on October 31, Cursive and Gladie on November 5, Wild Pink + Friendship on November 8 and Six Organs of Admittance with Tashi Dorji on November 14.

The Stissing Center in Pine Plains presents fiddler Bruce Molsky on October 19, Larry Chernicoff’s Higher Octoberave Ensemble on October 26, “Chalk and Soot” with Brooklyn Rider Quartet and Ariadne Greif on

November 3, Cajun groovers Pine Leaf Boys on November 8, Jerrod “Blind Boy” Paxton and Dennis Lichtman on December 7 and vocal tribe Windborne on December 13.

In the Berkshires, The Stationery Factory celebrates Dalton Country Fest with Hotshot Hillbillies, Whiskey Sour and Kollin Kozlowski on October 26 and Whiskey Treaty Roadshow’s 10th anniversary on November 23.

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington summons the dance prodigies of Ailey II on October 25 and 26 November and harmonic singers The Wailin’ Jennys on November 23, while nearby Egremont Barn corrals Charleston rockers Easy Honey on October 18 and soulroots group Jamie McLean Band on November 9.

Calendar

Bartender Wars

Terrapin Restaurant

Rhinebeck, NY

Local mixologists compete for the coveted “Silver Shaker” award, determined by popular vote, while teetotalers get to determine the top mocktail. rhinebeckchamber.com

11-13

Making NOISE

Main Street and environs

Kingston, NY

Health and wellness workshops are at the heart of the O+ Festival, a town-wide extravaganza featuring dozens of musical acts (notably, Neko Case), dance performances, spoken word and a vendor-packed “BlO+ck Party.” opositivefestival.org

11-27

4th Annual Peace, Love and Pumpkins

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY

If begging door to door isn’t your jam, consider getting spooked via this drive-thru experience. Or better yet, walk it, during October 25’s Friday Night Fright fest. bethelwoodscenter.org

13-18

Healing with Horses

Omega Institute

Rhinebeck, NY

12

Pink Martini featuring China Forbes

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA

The wildly popular, multicultural Portland collective drops in during its 30th anniversary tour. Classical, pop, jazz—it’s all part of the band’s heady, progressive mix. mahaiwe.org

12, 20

Legend of Sleepy Hollow Family Storytelling Event

Hudson Valley Writers Center

Sleepy Hollow, NY

Got up in period garb, professional storyteller David Neilsen provides chills and background deets in this family-friendly half-hour retelling, capped off by activities and treats. writerscenter.org

12-13

Harvest Festival

Berkshire Botanical Garden

Stockbridge, MA

Gourmands will make a beeline for the “botanical bakery” offering bisque, chili and sweets, others the obstacle course, hayrides and scores of craft booths. berkshirebotanical.org/ harvest-festival-2024

13

Quadrille

The Clark, Williamstown, MA

Set to cello compositions by Alyssa Regent and Tania León, Miro Magloire’s eclectic choreography draws on Haitian folk-dance symmetries, among other influences. clarkart.edu

Local equestrian/yogini Jennifer Cohen Harper joins the 13 Hands Equine Rescue team to introduce tyros to the joys of interacting with equines, not necessarily while astride them. eomega.org

20

Transylvanian Dance: Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri

The Local, Saugerties, NY

Kids are born fauvists, and Béla Bartók’s wild music can leave them classical-curious. At this family-friendly show, Romanian pianist Lucian Ban and US violist Mat Maneri promise to riff and transport. thelocalsaugerties.com

19-20

Sheep and Wool Festival

Dutchess County Fairgrounds Rhinebeck, NY

Cottagecore enthusiasts can sign up for workshops ranging from fiber crafts (felted pumpkins) to basket-weaving and spooncarving. Unmissable: the livestock demos, including “leaping llamas.” sheepandwool.com

20 Beacon Sloop Club Pumpkin Festival

Fresh from a bracing free sail aboard the Woody Guthrie, dive into hot pumpkin soup and freshbaked pie while taking in live music emanating from two solarpowered stages. beaconsloopclub.org

20 The 27th Annual Rosendale International Pickle Festival

Ulster County Fairgrounds

New Paltz, NY

Test your pickle face with the Pickle Triathlon (eating, juicedrinking, tossing). Among the more esoteric offerings from 100odd vendors: pickle empanadas, pasta, cupcakes and ice cream. rosendalepicklefestival.org

25-27

Haunted Mill

Maxon Mills, Wassaic, NY

Every fall, the arts nonprofit, lodged in a towering grain elevator, invites creators to engage in a “terrible takeover” of its galleries. On Saturday night, the gathering segues into a Monster’s Ball at the nearby Lantern Inn. wassaicproject.org

25-27

Halloween Haunts & Happenings

Mohonk Mountain House

New Paltz, NY

The endless corridors of this sprawling 1869 resort can be Shining-scary in their own right. Throw in “ghostly games,” an escape room mystery and a Monster Mash Party for kids, and everyone will be amused and spooked. mohonk.com For complete fall calendar listings, go to themountainsmedia.com

zen at work “If you’ve never meditated before, this should be totally congenial,” says Harris (right) with Sebene Selassie about the upcoming Omega Institute event.

hi, Dan Harris: ‘Meditation Nerd’

GMA’s former star anchor spearheads ‘meditation party’ at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck. |

By Sandy MacDonald

A decade ago, Dan Harris, then a hard-driving coanchor on ABC’s Good Morning America, published 10% Happier, a memoir about his balky immersion into the practice of meditation. The book has since sold a million copies and playful proselytizing is now his full-time occupation, via the podcast of the same name (more than 800 episodes to date) and rare in-person events like the one he’ll lead in October at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY.

Newbies and adepts alike are welcome to attend, in the flesh or via live feed. Over the course of the weekend, Harris and his co-chairs, selfprofessed “meditation nerds” Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren, share the podium for four discussand-sit sessions which include Q&A opportunities.

“It’s quite improvisational,” Harris says, “but there’s also a decent amount of formal teaching, so that people get the guidance they need. If you’ve never meditated before, this should be totally congenial. If you’re looking for something a little less strict than a formal retreat, I think this would be good. We try to keep in mind the whole spectrum of potential attendees.”

Plus, he promises, “There’s a huge amount of free time. People can decide: Do they want to take a walk? Get a massage?” Putting the zhuzh back in zazen, there’s even a Saturday night dance party where participants get to cut loose and make utter fools of themselves.

“I spend my life interviewing the great meditation masters,” Harris says, “and the common denominator is that they don’t take themselves too seriously—because that’s the end point, the whole point of the practice.”

The Fame Refuge

These mountains are home to amazing people—including celebrities—who all hope for one thing: good neighbors.

By Abbe Aronson

Like most unassuming small towns that’ve been adopted by creatives over the years, Woodstock was full of power players who were joyfully living under the radar when I first took up residence here almost two decades ago. The word ‘creatives’ is slightly cringy to me, wildly overused and most certainly not what comes to mind when I remember my early days in what is often referred to as “the oldest arts community in the United States.”

There was, of course, my neighbor and friend of decades, Michael Lang, a name recognized as royalty here, having co-created the zeitgeist that was Woodstock ’69 and its adjacent festivals. Michael was the ultimate famous yet nonchalant Woodstocker, sweet and gregarious and kind and somehow able,

roll camera, roll sound Three-time Oscar winning film director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) on location filming Taking Woodstock.

in a social gathering, to relay a personal revelation that could stop nearly any conversation as the jaw succumbs to gravity. I remember one evening around my pool when we adults were all chatting as the kids swam. The talk turned to love, specifically, unrequited love or loves from past lives on which we reflected fondly. Michael quietly mentioned, “Yeah, for me, that was Janis.” Um, Janis Joplin. Then, there was the luminous Uma Thurman, who’d been a neighbor when I was in my Woodstock infancy as a renter, trying on

various roads in our mountain town before we bought our own place. Uma and I had young children that were roughly the same age, given to splashing around in a creek at the top of our road. I remember a summer evening when my family strolled into The Bear Café, having actually had a run-in with a black bear family in the woods not far from our rental house. My mother, grandmother and sister were still agog at the proximity of wildlife, then even more stunned when we encountered another rare sighting: a bona fide celebrity at dinner who seemed to recognize me “Be cool!” I admonished my family. “She’s allowed to eat her meal in peace. Stop staring!” No doubt, when my mother returned to Philadelphia, she herself dined out on the very tall tale entitled “My Daughter’s Friend, the Movie Star.” Oy! Oy! Oy! And jumping ahead to today, Uma, as lovely as ever, remains a coveted square when people visit and play “guess who I saw in Woodstock” bingo. Of course, a town our size, with a formidable film festival, draws in even more bold-faced names on a regular basis. Having worked with The Woodstock Film Festival over the years, I’m always happy to interact with so many artists whose works touch me greatly, especially when I learn something new about them. This year’s WFF poster was created by Matt Dillon, and as always, he was a sweetheart. And when Matt was in town for the festival a few years back, he scored extra points in my book when we bonded over our mutual love of painter Philip Guston, with Matt asking me to arrange a visit to the Woodstock Artist Association & Museum. Now that—that’s up-close-and-personal Hollywood On The Hudson, inside edition.

So, what do you do when encountering a celebrity in your neighborhood?

• Oh please, let them enjoy their lunch/ice cream/swimming hole respite in peace. If you must say hello, do it quickly. I always think a simple “thanks for such meaningful work” is the nicest approach. Screaming and jumping up and down is, um, frowned upon

• Ask permission to take a photo. One photo, got it? My actor pal, Vera Farmiga, is the pinnacle of kindness when fans approach her; I admire her grace more than I can say

• Many of our local celebrities live here quietly with their families and as such are wildly protective of their loved ones. Look at it this way: Would your children be OK with you posting a photo of them doing (fill in the blank) on social media? There’s your answer. Put down Instagram and enjoy the scenery

Fabric stores

Beetle And Fred 171 Main Street Beacon, NY 12508

845.440.8867 beetleandfred.com

This charming fabric store caters to garment sewers and modern quilters of all ages and abilities, and even offers public sewing classes in a separate space housed in the Beacon Music Factory Building.

Hudson Quilt Co.

489 Oak Hill Road Hudson, NY 12534

518.567.4600 hudsonquiltco.wixsite.com/ my-site-4

JOANN Fabric And Cra s

160 Fairview Avenue Hudson, NY 12534

518.828.2621 stores.joann.com/ny/hudson

Decorators Fabric Outlet

767-795 East Chester Street Kingston, NY 12401

845.336.5600

Pumpkin Patch Quilts

43 Main Street Lee, MA 01238 413.243.1635 pumpkinpatchquilts.com

Hart 16 Railroad Street Great Barrington, MA 01230 413.274.8148 info@harttextiles.net

Handloom Batik

532 Warren Street Hudson, NY 12534

518.828.2205 handloombatik.com

Village Fabric Shoppe

7578 North Broadway #4 Red Hook, NY 12571

845.758.8541 villagefabricshoppe.com

your go-to autumn essentials 2024

Mid Hudson Animal Aid 54 Simmons Lane Beacon, NY 12508 845.831.4321 midhudsonanimalaid.org

Columbia-Greene

Humane Society

111 Humane Society Road Hudson, NY 12534 518.828.6044 cghs.org

Ulster County SPCA 20 Wiedy Road Kingston, NY 12401 845.331.5377 ucspca.org

Paws Unlimited

637 Murray Road Kingston, NY 12401 845.336.7297 pawsunlimited.com

Berkshire Humane Society’s Purradise 301 Stockbridge Road Great Barrington, MA 01230 413.717.4244 berkshirehumane.org

This private, non-profit, socially conscious animal shelter’s mission is to ensure the compassionate care, treatment and placement of companion animals, while promoting and improving the welfare of all animals.

Hudson Valley Animal Rescue And Sanctuary 9 Barnes Drive Poughkeepsie, NY 12603 845.392.4849 hvars.org

Berkshire Humane Society’s Wellness Clinic

289 Dalton Avenue Pittsfield, MA 01201 413.203.4330 berkshirehumane.org

The Last Post 95 Belden Street Falls Village, CT 06031 860.824.0831 thelastpost.org

BLOOD DONATION CENTERS

New York Blood CenterFishkill Donor Center 584 US-9 Fishkill, NY 12524 800.933.2566 nybc.org

Hudson Valley Blood Services 51 Albany Avenue Kingston, NY 12401 845.943.5239 nybc.org

Berkshire Medical Center 725 North Street Pittsfield, MA 01201 413.447.2000 berkshirehealthsystems.org

The BMC is committed to increasing the supply of donated blood in the Berkshires area, for use in local patients and aiding in efforts to decrease the cost of blood.

American Red Cross 4 Jefferson Street Suite 302 Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 845.471.0200 redcross.org

New York Blood CenterKingston Donor Center 51 Albany Avenue Kingston, NY 12401 800.933.2566 nybc.org

Quest Diagnostics

330 Route 212 Old, Grand Un Plaza Saugerties, NY 12477 845.246.5760 questdiagnostics.com

Nuvance Health - Patient Blood Management (PBM) 21 Elm Street New Milford, CT 06776 833.662.5663 nuvancehealth.org

Evere Red Cross Blood, Platelet And Plasma Donation Center 33 Everett Road Albany, NY 12205 800.733.2767 redcrossblood.org

police stations

Rhinebeck Village Police Department

76 East Market Street Rhinebeck, NY 12572 845.876.8181

Villageofrhinebeck.org/police

Hudson City Police Department

701a Union Street Hudson, NY 12534 518.828.3388 cityofhudson.org

Great Barrington Police Department

465 Main Street

Great Barrington, MA 01230 413.528.0306 greatbarringtonpolice.com

The GB Police Department is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for residents by complying with best practices in law enforcement.

Pi sfield Police Department

39 Allen Street Pittsfield, MA 01201 413.448.9700 pittsfieldpd.org

City of Poughkeepsie Police Department

62 Civic Center Plaza Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 845.451.4000 cityofpoughkeepsie.com/187/ police-department

Litchfield Police Department

74 West Street Litchfield, CT 06759 860.567.8596 townoflitchfield.org/entities/ police-department

Catskill Village Police Department

422 Main Street Catskill, NY 12414

518.943.2244 villageofcatskillny.gov

Village of Monticello Police Department

2 Pleasant Street Monticello, NY 12701

845.794.4422 villageofmonticello.com

Animal Shelters

solar installers

Incite Solar Solutions

182 Wendell Avenue Suite 100 Pittsfield, MA 01201

978.482.6053 incitesolarsolutions.com

New England Solar + Green 65 North Street Williamstown, MA 01267 413.458.4966 nesolarandgreen.com

Lighthouse Solar - NY

4 Cherry Hill Road

New Paltz, NY 12561 845.251.2012 lighthousesolarny.com

With a team trained and trusted to assess your home energy efficiency needs quickly, Lighthouse Solar provides you with the very best estimates and solar solutions. Their dedicated team includes licensed electricians who are certified to perform many types of solar installations.

SunCommon

1155 Flatbush Road Kingston, NY 12401

866.452.7652 suncommon.com

Kasselman Solar

3 Neptune Road A25 Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 845.681.4088 kasselmansolar.com

Lotus Solar

98 Green Street #4 Hudson, NY 12534 518.828.3105

Hudson Valley Community Power

505 Main Street Beacon, NY 12508 845.859.9099 hudsonvalleycommunitypower.com

Green Power Energy

42 Ozick Drive Suite 3 Durham, CT 06422 866.514.6051 greenpowerenergy.com

TyDy Wood Supply

491 Debruce Road Livingston Manor, NY 12758 845.439.1258

HotAssWood.com

757 Freedom Plains Road Poughkeepsie, NY 12603 845.320.2673 hotasswood.com

Billed as your one-stop destination for high-quality, fully seasoned dried firewood, this super firewood facility offers a wide variety of hardwoods, including Oaks, Maples, Birch, Beech, Locust, Cherry, Ash, Hickory and Elm. Firewood comes in convenient half cord bags, packed in a 4x4x4 configuration.

Miller’s Firewood 136 Shear Road Saugerties, NY 12477

Bill Henry Tree Service Inc.

Serves Dutchess, Putnam and Northern Westchester Counties 845.243.2547 billhenrytreeservice.com

Hardwood Bros North 5 Orchard Drive Gardiner, NY 12525 845.442.4690 hardwoodbrothers.com

Addy Farm

Serves Berkshire County 413.441.6161 addyfarm.com

Mike’s Firewood

853 Dutchess Turnpike Poughkeepsie, NY 12603 845.797.4269 mikes-firewood.com

Cord King Firewood

Serves Dutchess County area and Western Connecticut 845.797.6877 cordkingfirewood.com

All You Knead Artisan Bakery

308 Main Street Beacon, NY 12508 845.440.8530 allyoukneadny.com

Eastdale Ave Bagels

35 Eastdale Avenue North Poughkeepsie, NY 12603 845.595.8711 eastdaleavenuebagels.com

Moonrise Bagels

68 Tinker Street Woodstock, NY 12498 845.684.7447 moonrisebagels.com Second location in Poughkeepsie.

Lox Of Bagels 3103 US-9W Saugerties, NY 12477 845.246.0594 lox-of-bagels.com

Great Barrington Bagel Company 777 Main Street Great Barrington, MA 01230 413.528.9055 gbbagel.com

Bagel & Brew 18 Franklin Street Lenox, MA 01240 413.637.0055

Kaylan’s Kitchen Bakery/ Bistro And Artisan Market 597 Main Street Torrington, CT 06790 860.294.7766 kaylanskitchens.com

Sunrise Bagel And Deli 496 Albany Avenue Kingston, NY 12401 845.331.9100 sunrisebagelsanddeli.com

In business for more than three decades, Sunrise is a family owned business serving traditional boiled bagels, which are individually hand rolled and proofed for at least a day in order to provide the best quality. Cash only.

tech support

Jonathan’s Computer Store And Computer Repair

315 Warren Street Hudson, NY 12534 518.822.8435 jonathanscomputers.com

Computer Guys

265 Main Street Saugerties, NY 12477

845.247.0506 thecomputerguys.net

netEffx

425 Manchester Road Suite 7 Poughkeepsie, NY 12603 845.454.2027 neteffx.com

Visionary Computer

29 Bissell Street Lakeville, CT 06039

860.435.2211 visionarycomputer.net

DB Consulting 1450 East Street Pittsfield, MA 01201 413.997.2369 dbccomputers.com

Specializing in high quality computer services ranging from virus removal and computer repair to networking and security, DB Consulting serves a variety of clientele, from the casual internetbrowsing homeowner to some of the area’s favorite local businesses.

Computer Woodstock

5 Tannery Brook Road Woodstock, NY 12498

845.679.6309

Hudson River Technologies Inc.

236 Plaza Road Kingston, NY 12401 845.340.4870 hudsonrivertechnologies.com

JK Techs Computer Repair Services

249 Main Street Suite 102 Beacon, NY 12508

845.298.2161 hudsonvalleytechs.com

Bagel Shops

firewood delivery

Self Preservation

Vinegar, sugar and pretty jars can get you through a lot. Or, have you tried my mango chutney?

By Martha Frankel

When I first moved to the Hudson Valley in the early 1970s, I met a group of older women who let me in on an important secret—vinegar and sugar could change and rescue anything. Or at least any fruit or vegetable. They taught me to can stone fruit and tomatoes, showed me how to pickle cucumbers and carrots. I sweated with them in their kitchens and then started doing it in my own.

Like everything else I’ve ever loved, I became totally addicted to it. Every late summer I would make 50 quarts of sour dill pickles, one for each week. I canned peaches and plums, and the rule was: no opening them ’til the first snow. By March, we’d be shoveling fruit into our mouths, trying to finish them before strawberries came into season.

pickle ball “Every late summer I would make 50 quarts of sour dill pickles, one for each week. I canned peaches and plums, and the rule was: no opening them ’til the first snow,” Frankel says.

I pickled huge jars of cauliflower and spring onions and every single vegetable that came my way.

I once entered my pickles into the Ulster County Fair, already imagining how the blue ribbon would look in a frame in my kitchen. But they didn’t taste the pickles, they just judged on what they looked like. In the end, the prettiest jar won, and I was left in tears.

I made jams and jellies, chutneys and sauces, put pretty colored ribbons around them and always had the perfect hostess gift.

As you may recall, at the end of August 2011 Hurricane Irene swept through these parts. First it took out the bridge to our house, then it deposited six feet of water in the building where I had my office and, although my office was on the second floor, the staircase got washed out.

I was home with bushels of fruits and vegetables. I was rescued but had no electricity for 17 days. The fruit rotted. The vegetables got moldy. I put the canner away and didn’t take it out for a decade.

I learned how to eat fruits and vegetables when they were in season— strawberries in the spring, melons and peaches in summer, apples and pears in fall. I stopped hoarding and just enjoyed what was plentiful.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I came around to canning again. When hurricane season starts up, I soothe my PTSD by making small batches of the things I love—mango chutney, peach salsa, preserved lemons, spicy fish sauce. I make a few jars of each, which I savor. And now I see it makes each bite sweeter.

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Peace Love and Lights Bethel Woods