Summer in the valley 2015 e sub

Explore Hudson Valley JUNE - SEPT. 2015 • ULSTER PUBLISHING • WWW.EXPLOREHUDSONVALLEY.COM

Summer in the Valley

part 1 of 2

All the things we do

Seasonal adventure by seasoned and unseasoned writers, ways to find and keep great secret swimming spots, and the eternal joys of painting plein air.

– September 2015 2 | June Explore Hudson Valley

GRAB YOUR FRIENDS AND BUILD YOUR PERFECT SUMMER DAY with Ruth Reichl, Gretchen Rubin, and Random House authors

Saturday, July 11 in Hudson, NY JOIN RANDOM HOUSE FOR A VARIETY OF BOOK-INSPIRED SESSIONS AND INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS • Full day of author and expert talks, with keynotes by The Happiness Project author Gretchen Rubin and legendary food writer Ruth Reichl • Random House tote bag full of books, exclusive early readers’ editions, goodies and gifts • Early preview of Random House’s fall books, including 4WVJ 4GKEJNoU Ƃ TUV EQQMDQQM KP HQTV[ [GCTUtMy Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life • Cooking demo with Ruth Reichl • Free summer beach reads • Book club entertaining tips • Flower arranging workshop • Hudson Valley wine tasting • Snacks and refreshments throughout the day • And many more surprises!

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June – September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley

| 3

The inner pilgrim Paul Smart writes a heartfelt piece about the evolution of his summers in the region

M

y first summer in the Catskills was also my first summer with a car. I was 30, and writing for several small-town local papers deep in the mountains. I was in love with long drives as a means of figuring out to where I’d moved. Friends came by each weekend. Sometimes there’d be great miscalculations of distance and time — like the time I tried to get from Phoenicia to the Rhinecliff train station via Delhi. Most of the time involved a blissful accumulation of adventures. I learned about the deep cloves and “kills” in the deep mountains, mysterious roads along the banks of the Hudson, the sweet allure of forgotten hamlets throughout the area, and the ubiquitous presence of surprise cultural elements everywhere. I learned always to carry a swim suit and towel in summer, along with a decent map (my favorite still being one produced by the Catskill Center many moons ago), and my dog-eared copy of the 1940 WPA Guide to the state and its roads. Service stations being much further apart back then, it was important always to have a full tank of gas.

I settled in, bought a house. The vistas I had searched out grew familiar, the stuff of inner memories. I wrote endless stories in an endless stream for local publications. Several events and spots became my regular favorites and haunts: country auctions, the last remaining ethnic resorts dotted around the area, chamber music at The Maverick and the Ukrainian Church in Hunter, waterfalls up in Peekamoose, time spent at the Saugerties Lighthouse dipping my butt in the Hudson, and farmstands in Columbia County. Or just hanging out on my front porch at home after mowing the lawns, inviting friends over for long dinners into the firefly-dotted nights.

I entered several years of courtship, first somewhat willy-nilly and then in a concerted fashion that led to my many-mooned marriage. Which changed my view of the greater region, bringing me out of the hills and into the Hudson Valley proper for picnics at the great homes with lawns stretching out before distant mountain vistas. I was introduced to the formal gardens of Dutchess County, various sculpture parks, and the heady fun of slide lectures at the Center for Photography at Woodstock. There were also various romantic restaurants in towns and every once in awhile out in the country.

Family visits replaced friends come in from the city and elsewhere. More kids started crowding the scene. We searched out swimming places with beaches and shallow areas. I started to keep a running tab of excellent playgrounds in four, then five, then six counties. Plus New York City, where we’d head at least once a summer for a dozen-in-24-hours playground extravaganza. We saw every circus that came to the area, petting zoos, county fairs, firetruck museums, olde airplane battles, and reenactment weekends. We learned how to make the region fun for our visitors, eschew the restaurant scene for fun dinners in our home or out in our garden.

Summers are now mixtures of nerf-sword camps, minor-league ballgames at Dutchess or Joe Bruno stadiums, and a working knowledge of putt-putt courses from Durham and Willcox Park to Kingston, lower Ulster County and any suggestions coming our way. There are weekly hikes to

JOSH HOLZ

strange-looking woods where we can pretend we are dwarves or hobbits, Arthurian knights, or Rogers Rangers. There are secret pools we can sneak into, as well as all those swimmable spots I’d come to know earlier along the Hudson or up in the hills.

I want to get us all up to the century-old summer colony I once lived in at the end of a hemlock-shaded valley, where they do an old-style “beefsteak dinner” over a wood fire whose origins can be linked back to the early days of downtown Manhattan captured in “Gangs of New York.” I want to rent kayaks on one of our reservoirs, get my kid a season pass to Zoom Flume, catch the student Shakespeare productions by the old barns at Vassar (for free!), revel in the revived old driveins that hipsters are starting to open up again, and go car camping on weekday nights.

We’re looking forward to a new basketball hoop in the back yard, the hum of neighborhood air conditioners and mowers on weekday afternoons, and setting up for croquet and badminton. And we’ll just sit back and watching the sunset over those glorious mountains, and then we’ll exchange Check Out Our Thrift Shop:

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our bit of Eden, come August, for a pair of places in France, by the beach and in Paris.

Since we had such a good time at their Zombie Fest last year, we’ll be sure to get to Rosendale’s big rollicking Street Fair this year, happening July 18 and 19, where we’ve heard one of our fave bands — Pitchfork Militia — will be headlining a roster that includes a whole mess of local talent. The following weekends we’re expecting a similar blast of sonic fun at the Hudson Music Fest all over that small city up the river from us, which we’ll be able to get to by ferry from Athens. With stops at several playgrounds on both sides, of course, and maybe even a fountain to play in.

How’s that for a cool Hudson Valley summer, 2015-style?

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– September 2015 4 | June Explore Hudson Valley

Sacred places Dante DeCecio writes about theatre camps and abandoned buildings

W

alking through the hilly and forested small towns of Ulster County, you can see the signs of summer everywhere.

Trees puffed up with their new leaves, ice-cream stores opening their candy-colored doors, and the humming restlessness of us young folks.

I’m wrapped in the restlessness myself, tapping my foot in the classrooms along with the rest of them.

We’ve been counting down since the first signs of warmth, and we are ready, ready for the great escape.

There’s something heroic about being a young person in a small-town summer. Maybe it comes from the ancient Hollywood fantasy of the young and the carefree, James Dean’s pursed lips as he speeds down the highway in a red jacket. Maybe it stems from the teenage need to escape, to destroy and create oneself and destroy oneself again in the fading search for freedom.

But mostly it’s the relieved feeling of stepping down the Woodstock sidewalk feeling the absence of a backpack weighed down with textbooks on one’s shoulder.

The Hudson Valley’s vast, and it’s even more vast without a driver’s license. Throughout the summer of 2015, I will be at least a week or two from driving age.

I will spend this season an eternal guest, a ghost in the back seat and shotgun, making light conversation.

This is the danger of summer. A person with nothing to do and no car to drive might as well be comatose.

This is why camps were created, to take all the latesleepers and throw them together in the center of the forest in hopes of finding something they can bring home with them. I’ve been to many summer camps, but two stick out in my memory: The Wayfinder Experience and New Genesis Productions.

Wayfinder is not a conventional camp. Its sleepaway sessions are a one-week intimate celebration of strangeness. The camp gives children tunics and foam swords, and for a night or two puts the fate of the realm in their hands. They act out carefully constructed adventures, with conflicts to solve and monsters to defeat. They feel like the most powerful creatures in the universe.

I have fallen in love dying in someone’s arms, covered in bright green greasepaint. I have stayed up late, sitting on the edge of tepid water lit by the sunrise, and talked with people I had just met three days ago about the continents we had conquered and those we had lost along the way. Without its decade of dark woods and grandiose fantasy, I think I would’ve lost something in the transition to adolescence that the Wayfinder Expe-

PHOTO CARE OF WAYFINDER EXPERIENCE

WIKICOMMONS

rience let me keep.

New Genesis Productions is a youth theater company run by the Aja-Sawhill family, who have built their own stage, The Little Globe Theatre, in their back yard, right next to their garden. Each year they put on three productions for three separate age groups, as well as a master-class production consisting of the company’s oldest and most committed student actors.

The first time I worked with them, I played a child soldier in Shakespeare’s Henry V who was killed brutally by the French. I wore a fleece vest and a cabbie hat. I didn’t speak loudly enough.

When I wasn’t muttering through my lines, I would lock eyes with an audience member and plead with them silently to drag me off stage. I went through a

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rite of passage of playing the necessary nouns: messenger, knight, hunter. I witnessed murders and insidious plots.

That time is past. What I remember clearly are the people. Someone always had their arm around someone. There is a closeness that develops in the toiling sweat and fear of backstage that couldn’t be found any other place.

In 2011 we wrote messages in chalk to the other companies of the Byrdcliffe theater. They’re still there.

Smudged, and embarrassing, but still there.

Free from the strictly scheduled and adult maintained, I will try my best to spend as much time as possible in abandoned places. Their unusual quietness and the rebellious thrill of trespassing in them make them sacred to me. The last abandoned place I visited was a quarry outside Saugerties. There is no signage on the way there, we parked on an empty road, and I was led through the woods until the trees opened up to reveal a wasteland. Small industrial shacks taken off their foundations leaned against foothills, There was abandoned equipment, rusted and graffitied by stoners, and behind that an abandoned factory by the river.

Walking down to the shore the factory’s support beams looked like Greek columns. The shore had been cleared of trees and hills. The sky was bigger than I’d ever seen it. I’ve lived in New York all my life, surrounded by mountains, and to have the sky opened up to me like that, especially in the glow that comes just after sunset, made the world seem smaller and larger at the same time. Maybe that’s the beauty in abandoned things, the feeling of both significance and insignificance. You’re a part of a place that has lived and died and lived again.

The excitement of summer is back, and some of us teenagers (as we have a tendency to do) have turned our plans into a thing of romantic spectacle. We will hike taller mountains, see brighter sunrises, run farther and faster than last summer. There is no doubt that we’ll be disappointed.

Not me. Although I will be attending the Wayfinder Experience and working with New Genesis, I’ve made no other summer plans. I have no dreams of fulfilling the teenage myth. I will not pine for some other reality. I will sit in the humid and sweet air, content in knowing that I’m only a 15-minute drive away from Saugerties’ old and crumbling mills and quarries.

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June – September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley

| 5

Carless love Summer in the Catskills without an automobile

By Sparrow

H

ow is summer in the Catskills if you don’t drive? Still festive.

My reasons for not driving are numerous: I grew up in Manhattan, I have carpal tunnel syndrome, I’ve never been rich enough to afford a large machine. For four years in the 1970s I lived in Florida, which is mostly flat, sunny, and perfect for bicycling. In 1978 I returned to Manhattan, to resume my career as a straphanger. In June 1998 I decamped to Ulster County.

Most summer pleasures, such as hiking in the woods, don’t require automotive help. Down the street from me, the New York New Jersey Trail Conference opened a new walkway last year, part of the Long Path (right at the end of Lane Street in Phoenicia). It’s easy, not so steep, and passionately quiet.

Personally, I’m not a sun worshiper. I don’t lie in my bikini working on my tan. I’m more of a shade worshiper.

One of my personal joys is leaning against a tree and reading. What books will I read? I believe in the theory of alternating complexity: a deathless classic followed by a low-rent mystery novel. Rural life offers enormous storage space, so I have an extensive book collection, almost none of which I bought. Most were grabbed from the free shelf of thrift shops.

Here’s a list of books I’ll attempt this summer: The House of Atreus by Aeschylus Death of a Hussy by M. C. Beaton Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Sein Language by Jerry Seinfeld The Cosmological Origins of Myth and Symbol

by Laird Scranton Colonel Blessington by Pamela Frankau Paris in the Twentieth Century by Jules Verne I enjoy conspiracy theories, but if I read such books in the winter I start to imagine a tall stranger in a trenchcoat holding a revolver just behind me. So summer is a better time to pursue such theses. The book I’ve been planning to begin for years is The Mormon Murders: A True Story of Greed, Forgery, Deceit, and Death by Stephen Naifeh & Gregory White Smith.

Once in a while, I’ll look up from my reading, observe a stirring pastoral event, and write a poem like this:

WIKICOMMONS

weather’s balmy and one may sit outside, Parisianstyle. The way Jean-Paul Sartre had his table at Les Deux Magots, Chip Gallagher has his spot next to Brio’s. Last summer I saw my friend Julie, sat down with her, and soon realized that I was surrounded by astrologers. “How does astrology work, exactly?” I asked, and none of them had a compelling explanation. But one is a day trader, who makes his living astrologically foretelling the stock market!

I like tourists. There, I’ve said it! It’s exciting to have newcomers exploring Main Street in Phoenicia – especially African-Americans. The Catskills are appealing, but it’s too damn white here. Soon after I moved here, my hair and beard turned the color of salt, from being surrounded by whiteness: snow and Caucasians.

Of course, I don’t utterly lack of mobility. Phoenicia is right on the UCAT (Ulster County Area Transit) bus route, as well as the Trailways line.

The bus to Manhattan becomes more engaging in summer, stocked with actors and editors, photographers, ballet dancers. Sometimes one of them will even speak to you!

Nowadays a gorgeous young man and a dazzling young woman – two strangers – will sit beside each other on a bus, both plug in their iPods, and never speak a word. “How will the human race continue?” you may ask. My answer is simple: OkCupid.

(According to the The New York Times, a tenth

of all Americans are enrolled in an online dating site.) Young people are afraid to speak to each other unless they’ve been pre-selected by a computer.)

Plus there’s a third option: hitchhiking. This low-cost method of transport works well in the kindly Catskills. If I were driver, I doubt I’d pick up someone like me – a grizzly, bearded dude in a bedraggled Jets cap – but other people do, and they’re always sweet. Each time I stick out my thumb, I calculate how long I’ve been hitching. I started at age 15, so it’s been 46 years.

Actually, there’s a fourth option. Friends from New York City – and other places – arrive in summer, and I function as their local guide, bartering geographic knowledge for free rides. I love to lead visitors to Colgate Lake (officially known as “Colgate Lake Wild Forest”), a state facility, free of charge, with no lifeguards, bathrooms, snack bars or even rangers. The story I heard is that one of the Colgate heirs would meet his mistress there, and when he died, donated the land to New York State on the condition that it remain perpetually free of coercive authority. The tranquil lakeside, often populated by Russians and artists, was a gift from an anarchistic toothpaste millionaire.

We make New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of the year. Why not Memorial Day resolutions for summer? My Memorial Day resolution is to spend more time in the back yard gazing at fireflies. For my money, they’re lovelier than fireworks.

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Nature Poem A bumblebee is seducing a dandelion.

I read more comic books in the summer. Their air of frivolity fits the season. On May 2, I was in New York City. After arriving at Port Authority Bus Terminal, I felt an inner voice prompting me: “Walk down 40th Street!” I followed this impulse, to find a long line of nerds standing on the sidewalk. “What’s going on?” I asked an overweight 23-year-old. “It’s Comic Book Day,” he replied.

Soon I was on line as well, preparing to receive my free packet of illustrated adventures, courtesy of Midtown Comics. I carried the books back to old Phoenicia: Divergence, Teen Titans Go!, Secret Wars, The Avengers, plus Sonic the Hedgehog, lettered by my friend Jack Morelli in Chichester. One of my goals for the summer is to read them all!

Though I have no musical ability, I try each day to play a musical instrument, just for a few minutes: a toy harmonica, a recorder, a bamboo flute. In summer I perform duets with birdcalls – including the song sparrow’s “myk-myk-LISSTtee-hu.”

Phoenicia itself gets frenzied in the summer.

Taco Tuesday at The Sportsman’s happens all year, but most of my friends only come when the

Karen Whitman, Solitude, 2015, Linoleum cut on Stonehenge paper, 24x331⁄2

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– September 2015 6 | June Explore Hudson Valley

ANNIE NOCENTI

Of ip-ops and oods Annie Nocenti writes of her river home to many

I

The home address for art in Woodstock

SUMMER @ WAAM

live on a bend in the Esopus. In the sultry months of summer those of us who live on water are popular by default. No need to seek life out; it comes rushing at us. Children lure parents to the river’s edge. And once in a blood moon river life jumps its banks and deluges with us something unexpected.

I never tire of taking kids on river walkabouts. I know where a shimmering spot is peppered with black dots, eggs that turn to tadpoles, sprout legs and struggle ashore. Pause. Hop away as frogs.

“Transformers!� one girl yells. “Can they go back the other way?� asks a curious boy. Deep thoughts for a shallow river.

There is a shady undercut in the bank with silky grey mud for body painting and bright green seaweed for a swamp wig. A pagan dressing room for a fright face. Tie some twine around logs for a makeshift raft, and a new gang is ready to Huck Finn away to parts unknown.

When hunger sets in, sure, there are marshmallows and cookies on deck. But I do like to first challenge young visitors to make their lunch from the land. There are wild onions to dig up, fresh tender dandelion leaves for salad, mulberries for dessert.

A surefire trick to guarantee a child’s first catch is to toss a few potato chips gently on the surface of the water. A sunny or perch will deem it to be an insect skittering on by and take the bait. For older kids after bigger game, there is the Hungarian method of using canned corn to hook a giant carp. Sit back and relax while the big beast drags the boat up river and down, tires itself out till you can scoop the monster into the boat like a baby. “Corn on the carp,� my friend Gary joked.

The zigs and zags of summers on the Esopus are marked by a curious form of happenstance barter. By the season’s end, after the crashing waves of parties have receded, my land looks like a popart crime scene. A lone pink flip-flop in the mud-

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June – September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley flats. A purple Star Wars cup endlessly bobbing in a whirlpool. A Mad Max bathing towel left strung up a tree. None of these things will be missed, because in some other home across Ulster County a child is wrapped in one of my Catwoman towels, my blue lamb bowls sit in a random sink. It’s a delightful kind of redistribution plan.

We used to try to figure out who left what and exchange it all back, but no one bothers anymore.

There s something cool about eating dinner off a Pokémon plate you d never buy yourself, and knowing that one of your friends is now eating off your zebra plate wondering where it came from.

People sweep in and out all summer, leaving and taking things, and these forgotten touchstones become the talismans of friendships.

Now about that unexpected deluge. When I first bought the property, one neighbor joked, “You’d better get a skiff.” Pause.

Draw on cigarette. Contemplate smoke. “Better put a six-pack in it.”

Pause. Drop butt. “Tie a long rope to it. Tie the other end to the roof.” Grind butt out with boot.

I’ll take the bait. “Okay. What for, neighbor?”

“For when the flood hits.”

At the time I laughed in disbelief. The Esopus is feisty in the spring but gets low and sluggish in summer. There was supposedly a flood in the 1987 that I missed by a few years, but locals warned of the inevitable biblical one. The Esopocalypse.

The 50-year flood. Okay. It’d been 20 years since the last one so I still had 30 years. They teased me about this mythic flood with roundabout jokes involving six-packs and ropes. The “big one” that

would never happen.

Until it did.

And it did feel biblical. It was April 2 , 2005.

I was at a friend’s art show in Kingston, and on the way home the local radio station was abuzz with news that Pope John Paul II had died. I got home and went to bed, clueless to the fact that this huge international news story had obliterated an important local item — flood watch! Almost 20 years since the last one.

In the middle of the night I heard what I thought was water running and rolled over, too sleepy to shut whatever faucet was dripping. At about 4 a.m. I awoke to the sound of rushing water and got up to investigate, thinking about wrenches and washers and which pipe I’d have to repair, most likely with duct-tape. I looked outside, and in the dark things were moving. It was a surreal moment of dizzy, roiling disconnect as I recalled the scene from The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy notices her house is whirling in a tornado. The Esopus Creek had jumped its banks, cut a new gulch through my neighbor’s property, U-turned, and was pounding on my door.

I needed that dang rope, boat and six-pack!

Luckily I was able to wade out of the new lake that was my yard.

It took a few days for the water to recede enough for me to return home. I discovered the river had redistributed a few things. My stairs, dock and boats were gone. My lawn chairs and gardening tools were gone. Lots of dead fish. There was a big red plastic car nestled high in the crook of a tree limb, yellow big wheels spinning gently in the fad-

| 7

ing storm winds.

As I wandered the property I found more popart plastic toys. Over the following days I was able to return the toys to the upstream children who lost them.

There is a Latin phrase, amor fati, acceptance of fate whatever it may be. No regrets. The ability to look back and realize that life flowed exactly as it was supposed to, and that you would be glad to repeat every inch of it without a single change.

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– September 2015 8 | June Explore Hudson Valley

Already home Harry Matthews explains his route from Brooklyn

A

t an opening recently in Woodstock a friend of mine who had grown there turned to a friend of his who had asked me if I was a local. “No, he’s an import,” he said.

What he said is true. I have only lived here for seven years But after a lifetime of nomadic-gypsy ramblings and far-flung peregrinations all over the world, I was thinking that I had found my “forever” home, like a feral waiting to be adopted.

So the “import” comment hurt a bit. Not much, but enough to make me wonder how long it would take to feel like a non-invasive part of the landscape where I’ve made my home. I’ve fallen for the Catskills and the Hudson Valley like no other place I’ve lived. Pinpointing exactly why sometimes seems as futile as nailing jello to a tree.

What is wonderful about any place is often intangible, making it hard to condense to a few rough words. I will try.

Not wanting to raise their family in the city yet unwilling to be no more than a two-hour drive away, my parents took a map, drew a 90 mile radius around Manhattan, and started looking for houses within that circle. The Hudson Valley was a contender, as was Connecticut. But they ended up buying a wonderfully rundown 250-year-old house on the banks of the Delaware River outside New Hope in Bucks County, PA. It was a lovely place to grow up, and in some ways very similar to Woodstock: hippies, artists, rolling hills and woodlands to explore, and lots of transplants from New York, which made my parents feel at home. But I never really felt content there and got out as soon as I could, moving first to Philadelphia, then to Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Over my almost 20 years in Brooklyn I travelled often, spending close to five of those years back and forth to India, England, France and Spain. By the age of 40 I was tired and in need of a place to settle down.

Brooklyn had changed. Or maybe I had. I wanted grass under my feet, streams to swim in, mountains to gaze at (and occasionally climb), and wildlife around beyond pigeons and rats.

Conveniently around this time I got evicted so my loft could be converted into a high-priced luxury condo. I halfheartedly looked for another space, but prices had skyrocketed beyond my reach. So I put everything in storage and drove to the Adirondacks to stay in a cabin my greatgrandparents had built there.

By September it was getting cold. Again it was time to move on. Since I had a brother living in the village of Catskill, I drove down. On the second day there I made an impulsive decision, renting a small house on Hutchin Hill Road in Shady owned by a friend of my brother. I knew no one. I had no job and little savings, but somehow I knew I had been drawn here for some reason. That was seven years ago.

B

efore moving here I had known little about the area. I had been passing through my whole life, driving up I-87 to our family’s cabin. I would often scoff as friends would point at Overlook and ask me if those were the Adirondacks. “No,” I would answer with arrogant dismissiveness. “The Adirondacks are real mountains, those are just hills.” I had no idea what I was talking about. Though geologists might have

HARRY MATTHEWS

agreed with me, the Catskills are truly spectacular.

Why do we come to be here, whether for a weekend visit or the rest of our lives? What is it about these mountains, this river that continuously draws people in?

Since the time of the Hudson River School, the founding of Byrdcliffe and Maverick, the Millbrook LSD scene of Leary and Alpert, among others, our area has been a safe haven, attracting uniquely creative people from all over the world seeking fresh air, and space to be their own freaky selves. That’s why I came here.

The loss of manufacturing and the desolation of main streets at the hands of big-box stores had left many once-vibrant towns stark and empty of life and commerce. The new life being breathed into many places now is a homemade, unprocessed life.

Like Beacon and Kingston, Saugerties and Hudson, a revitalization is afoot that was hardly there when I arrived. (Not that I had anything to do with it, I just hide out in the woods.) Though gentrification has crept into some parts, it should not be confused with the homegrown inspiration at the core of this change.

Take, for example, the Masters On Main Street project begun by Fawn Potash and the Greene County Council on the Arts. They turned the many empty storefronts along Catskill’s Main Street into pop-up gallery spaces, showing the works of students in fine-arts master’s programs around the country. Soon people were parking their cars and walking the street, remembering what a great place Main Street could be. Now, five years on, every one of those empty storefronts is filled: a used bookstore, a couple of antiques shops, a new farmto-table restaurant, a cafe, an artist making handmade books and another making handmade toys.

Lately I’ve read how one local town or another is being called the new “Williamsburg North” or “Greenpoint on the Hudson. Though these ridiculous namings seem nauseatingly distressing at first, there is something good in it. What I found in Williamsburg when I first moved there in 1988 was a forgotten immigrant neighborhood with cheap rents in big empty loft buildings, good Polish and Latino food, and close proximity to Manhattan. Though it was almost impossible to get a

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taxi to take you over the bridge, and harder to get friends to visit, the L train platform was always empty at rush hour and you could still see Shorty Jackson at Teddy’s. The neighborhood was rough, but we artists and musicians had a desire to create our own oasis out of what seemed a cultural desert.

T

hat same energy I felt then seems to be happening here; artists, musicians, craft brewers, organic farmers, etc., doing their things and making this again a vibrantly creative place to be. From BSP and the O+ festival in Kingston, to the Hudson Valley Dance Festival in Catskill, and The Spiegeltent at Bard, the area is abounding with artistic happenings to be a part of. It seems like every new restaurant is now farmto-table, and everyone wants to know where what they eat comes from. People want small-batch, organic, locavore, homemade and handmade things.

Folks here are cooking, making, and growing all of them. And when you live in an area of such fertile soil and busy famers, it is nice to be able to tell visitors that it all comes from right up the road.

On our old farm outside of Palenville we have a cottage that we rent out via a home-sharing website, mostly to couples desperately needing an escape from the city. Invariably, when they get out of the car and smell the grass, the rich soil in the air, the flowers, hearing the creek out back and birds in the trees, the sense of relief on their faces is palpable. They want to know about farm markets, and I direct them to Jim and Irene at Story Farms for locally smoked trout, great veggies and maple syrup. They want delicious local food and I tell them of the fresh-baked wonders from the lovely women at Circle W in Palenville, or brunch at Miss Lucy’s or Duo. They ask about locals, and I let them know that they mostly don’t bite, that is, unless you ask them to. They ask for recommendations on the best swimming holes, hiking trails, music venues, art galleries, and without much thought I can steer them to amazing world-class places for each, all within a ten-to-30-minute drive. If I listed all the places I love in these categories, we’d be here all day.

All in all, home is what one makes of it, whether one is an import or a local. It’s possible that I wouldn’t appreciate the area with the same passion had I grown up here that I get from having discovered it for myself. (Take that, Henry Hudson!). I may never be considered a local in the place I have chosen as my home, and in the end that’s okay. I’ve never really been a local anywhere, and maybe I’ll never be one. I once asked Patty Harvey, the proprietor of the Circle W, how long I had to live here before I was considered a local? “You might be waiting a very long time,” she laughed.

That’s cool, I thought, because I’m not going anywhere. I’m already home.

June – September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley

Jazz, Blues and R & B

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| 9

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– September 2015 10 | June Explore Hudson Valley

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– September 2015 12 | June Explore Hudson Valley

A beautiful thing Rebecca Miller Ffrench explains her growing enchantment with farmers’ markets

D

o you remember your first farmers’ market? I can’t say that I do. I’ve been racking my brain to recall a time when I was growing up, in the late Seventies and Eighties, attending any type of open-air communal space with farmers selling their products — but I can’t.

Instead, where I grew up in a far-reaching suburb of Chicago (we were actually closer to the Wisconsin border than the city), farmers in our area would set up stands at the end of their driveways, loaded with sweet corn, eggs and other abundant produce, usually with an honor box, sometimes manned, sometimes not. We would choose the best-looking ears, greens, or squash, pop the money in the box, and be on our way.

Other than when I visited a distant aunt with a farm, that was the extent of my interaction with farmers, except of course when I’d see Roy and June, who were good friends of my grandparents.

“They do really well with their crops, you know,” my grandmother would brag. “They sell to Del Monte, their corn gets canned.” There was no talk of GMOs, pesticide use, or lack of biodiversity — only of making money.

It’s ironic that my next encounters with farmers would be in New York City. I moved there in 1993, and my now-husband introduced me to the Union Square Greenmarket. It felt so exotic, so European. Of course for forward-thinking chefs like Alice Waters and restaurateurs like Danny Meyer, this type of outlet was nothing new. They had been procuring local, seasonal food from farmers’ markets for years, incorporating their finds into their restaurants’ daily menus.

For me, that was not an everyday occurrence, nor a weekly one for that matter. I got down to Union Square when I could, which wasn’t often.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY REBECCA FFRENCH

I was still shopping at markets in my neighborhood, much of the conventionally grown produce stickered with labels displaying their far-off countries of origin. In the back of my mind, though, the Union Square market was always there, always beckoning. It was actually while my husband and I were traveling —from San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza to Guadeloupe’s Pointe-à-Pitre market — that we would seek out local foods. Obsessed with cooking and eating, we wanted to experience that fresh catch, the just-picked produce. The flavors

were incomparable.

Fast-forward twelve years. Now I was a wife and mother of two. My family and I moved upstate to the hamlet of Phoenicia, pre-Diner, pre-Graham, and before it was ever voted one of the coolest small towns in America. It was funky, artsy — and home. Many folks I met were growing their own vegetables, foraging from the forests, and baking their own breads. There was no late-night pizza delivery; we learned to toss our own. My neighbor was teaching my two daughters to start seeds

June – September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley

| 13

Some markets to check out this summer!

Columbia County

Dutchess County

Chatham Farmers Market

Amenia Spring Market

www.chathamrealfoodcoop.net/farmers-market. html; 4pm-7pm, Fridays June 7 - October 18

Copake/Hillsdale Farmers Market facebook.com/copakehillsdalefarmersmarket; 9am-1pm, Saturdays May 23 - October 31

Hudson Farmer’s Market www.facebook.com/hudson.markt?fref=ts; 9am1pm, Saturdays May 2 - November 21

Red Hook Village Farmers Market http://redhookvillagefarmersmarket.com; 10am2pm, Saturdays May 24 - October 25

http://www.ameniafarmersmarket.com; 3pm to 7pm, Fridays year-round

Arlington Farmers Market

Rhinebeck Farmers Market http://www.rhinebeckfarmersmarket.com; 10am-2pm, Sundays May 10th - November

http://arlingtonhasit.org/happenings/farmersmarket; 3pm-7pm, Thursdays June 4 - October 29

Ulster County

Beacon Farmer’s Market

Ellenville Farmers Market

http://www.beaconfarmersmarket.org; 10am3pm, Sundays year-round

http://nfmd.org/ny/ellenville/1003698.html 10am - 2pm, Sundays May - October

Fishkill Farmers Market

Kingston Farmers’ Market

www.facebook.com/newlebanoncountrymarket; 10am-2pm, Sundays June 7 - September 27

http://dutchesstourism.com/listings/farmersmarkets/fishkill-farmers-market;’ 9am-3pm, Thursdays May-October

http://kingstonfarmersmarket.org; 9am-2pm, Saturdays May 24 - November 21

New Paltz Farmers Market

Philmont Farmers Market

Hudson Valley Market @ Greig Farm

www.newpaltzfarmersmarket.com; 10am-3pm, Sundays May 31 - November 22

Kinderhook Farmers Market www.kinderhookfarmersmarket.com; 8:30am12:30pm, Saturdays May 9 - October 10

New Lebanon Country Market

www.pbinc.org/revitalization; 10am-2pm, Sundays May 24 - mid-October

Upstreet Market www.facebook.com/upstreetmarket; 4pm-7pm, Wednesdays

Valatie Farmers Market http://valatiefarmersmarket.com; 10am-2pm, Sundays May 17 - September

Delaware County Pakatakan Farmers’ Market

http://www.greigfarm.com/hudson-valley-farmers-market.html; 10am-3pm, Saturdays yearround

Hyde Park Farmers Market http://www.hydeparkfarmersmarket.org; 9am2pm, Saturdays June 6 - October 31

Milan Farmers Market http://dutchesstourism.com/listings/farmersmarkets/milan-farmers-market; 3pm-7pm, Fridays May 22 - September 25

https://www.facebook.com/RosendaleFM; 10am-2pm, Sundays June 7 - October 25

Saugerties Farmers’ Market http://saugertiesfarmersmarket.com; 10am-2pm, Saturdays May 24 - October 31

Woodstock Farm Festival www.woodstockfarmfestival.com; 3:30pm - dusk May 27 - October 21

Millbrook Farmers Market

http://www.roundbarnmarket.org; 9am-2pm, Saturdays Opens May 16

http://www.millbrooknyfarmersmarket.com; 9am-1pm, Saturdays May 23 - October 31

and harvest lettuce. An acquaintance showed me where to find ramps. And yet another friend got me hooked on goods from the area’s farmers’ markets, from BuddhaPesto to tart, crispy apples.

La Scanlon, a market veteran, has been selling Rock Hill Bakehouse bread, which comes from Glens Falls, for over twelve years. An Ulster County resident, she gets up in the wee hours of the morning to get her goods to market. She has worked in Pine Hill, South Salem and Warwick among other outposts. “Markets are a beautiful thing,� says Scanlon.

Her customers have watched her three boys grow up, they bring her gifts, share tips, and exchange ideas. One woman showed her concern for Scanlon on a 30-something-degree day by bringing her homemade hot cocoa. She says the relationships she’s developed are meaningful, and the market is a caring, engaging community.

There has been over a 350% increase in farmers’ markets nationwide since 1994. The USDA estimated there were 8268 markets operating in 2014. There are dozens in the Catskills/Hudson Valley region. The four in my area that I frequent are Pakatakan, Woodstock, Kingston and Rhinebeck. I’m perpetually learning at these fresh-food hubs, where I’m continually introduced to new varieties of fruits and vegetables. Education is among the missions of most markets — teaching consumers about farming practices, connecting their finished meal to the dirt from which their food grows.

rooms in North America ... to teach, and just connect with people.�

Shopping at farmers’ markets has changed the way I plan meals. I have learned to let go and allow the farmer to determine what’s for dinner.

My husband was always a proponent of seasonal shopping. Fifteen years ago when we’d plan dinner parties, I’d want to know exactly what we were preparing before we went to the store. He’d say, “I’m just going to get what looks good.� In essence, he was buying what was freshest, what was in season. Me, I wanted to eat what I wanted, when I wanted.

Then I learned. I understood it could be so much better. Why in December would I eat flavorless strawberries that are white and cellulose-y inside when in June I can have true flavors — juicy, deep red, fleshy berries that are extremely sweet and satisfying.

Since foods are sold at markets directly from farmers, they are fresher and retain more nutritional benefits. The produce farmers delivers is not sitting on a ship or in storage, waiting to ripen. Because there is less distance between you and your food, fewer natural resources are used to get the produce to you. A smaller carbon footprint is left. The food is also usually less processed, not waxed, which also makes it more desirable as does the fact that you don’t have to scan for unwanted ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup — not to mention there is no packaging claiming health benefits that are usually quite marginal.

U

T

nderstanding what you’re putting on your plate is a step toward a sustainable, local food system. These buzzwords — farmto-table, local, sustainable — are heavily overused, which is exactly why it’s important to know exactly how they pertain to your food purchases.

At a market, you can ask the vendor how and where the foodstuff was grown and how it was harvested or slaughtered. Some farmers don’t want to pay for an organic certification but they still use organic practices. Find out if the farmer sprays, and if those sprays are harmful. Vendors are oftentimes brimming with a plethora of knowledge.

At the opening day of the Kingston market, Oleh Maczaj, owner of Rusty Plough Farms, told me to be sure I buried my heirloom variety tomato plants deep, “at least to the first real leaves.�

I also met John Michelotti, the founder of Catskill Fungi. He lives right up the road from me in Big Indian, but we’d never met. It was at the market we shared a mutual love for sauted mushrooms. That is exactly why Michelotti says he started doing markets this year: “to reach out to the community, to reframe the culture of mush-

Rosendale Farmers Market

here’s no doubt that buying from farmers has a multitude of benefits. But what about the cost? And the loss of time spent making an extra stop, and then walking from vendor to vendor? After all, you can’t get your toilet paper and laundry detergent there (at least not yet!).

Let’s not kid ourselves, prices are high. The consumers aren’t as diverse as I would hope. While the farmer can cut out the middleman, quality products are still expensive. When you’re just try-

ing to feed your family and make ends meet, how do you justify these prices?

Author and food activist Michael Pollan says quite succinctly, “Spend more, eat less.� He says, “Americans are as addicted to cheap food as we are to cheap oil. We spend only 9.7% of our income on food, a smaller share than any other nation. Is it a coincidence we spend a larger percentage than any other on health care (16%)?�

The good news: many vendors accept SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program, formerly food stamps) payments. Most markets have a table with an EBT terminal where a card is swiped for payment and tokens are given to the SNAP user to spend throughout the market.

Unfortunately, not all vendors accept the tokens, mostly those selling prepared foods and non-food items.

Anthony Fassio, chair of Slow Food NYC, whose organization supports local food traditions and advocates for people to know where their food comes from, how it tastes, and how food choices affect the rest of the world, says change must be incremental. You cannot rid yourself of processed foods overnight. There is a learning curve. You need to learn how to prepare fresh foods, how to store them, and how to enjoy them. Also, connect with the cycles of nature. If you’re buying foods at the height of their season, prices are usually lowest since there is an abundance of that food. You may also find foods you wouldn’t in a conventional market such as venison or stinging nettles.

Whether you’re on a budget or not, Leanne Brown’s Good and Cheap cookbook is a good place to start. It’s a free PDF download available online (leannebrown.com). An NYU food studies scholar, Brown wrote the book for people with tight budgets, particularly those using four-dollar-a-day SNAP benefits. It has been downloaded more than 500,000 times.

Once you’ve perused that book, get out go to your market. Ask questions about quality, freshness, nutritional values and sustainability. Most importantly, meet your farmer!

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– September 2015 14 | June Explore Hudson Valley

Time and place Jennifer Brizzi explores the explosion of local food products

I

n these times most chefs worth their mettle know that the focus must be local.

Startup restaurants have to announce publicly that they source as much as possible from local purveyors. Restaurateurs keep it about community rather than corporate, reduce their carbon footprint by not shipping long distances, encourage sustainable and humane methods of raising or growing foodstuffs, and boast of the flavor that local food that’s been freshly harvested gives to the items on the menu.

Local products are making names for themselves. Hudson Valley foie gras may have jumpstarted the trend, as did our wines. New York City folks have long been supping from the spoils of their marketbasket to the north (us).

But now we’re getting a reputation for our grassfed meats, and for our specialty beverages — from cider made from heritage apples to distilleries now dotting the countryside. Our cheeses win national awards; our charcuterie rivals the best of Europe. Our chocolatiers make imaginative high-end creations, often fair trade and/or flavored with local ingredients. The variety of fruits and vegetables that grow well here is expanding every year.

Besides having a finger on the pulse of today’s food world, and seeing “local” everywhere, how do chefs figure out how to make it work? How do they manage to keep it local as they source and create tempting menu items? Can this skill be taught, like reading, writing, ’rithmetic and knife skills, or is it innate?

Although he was schooled at SUNY Delhi, chef Rob Handel of the Bees Knees Café on Heather Ridge Farm in Preston Hollow credits his frugal grandmother. “While I did have some formal training,” he explains, “my earliest culinary education came from my grandmother. She was an excellent home cook who happened to become a professional cook by circumstance. She spent her life running both her home kitchen and the resort kitchen on a small budget, and as such developed a keen skill for utilizing what she had available to her.”

Handel’s grandmother would forage for foods, knowing what to look for and how to find it. Her farmer friends gave her good deals on surplus foods, and she would make the best use of the bounty. This influenced Handel’s own approach.

“Maximizing the potential of the foods that you have available locally is at the heart of successful local cuisine,” he says. “My best dishes are always the ones that develop organically through taking stock of what produce and other local foods there are and then working backwards from there. This isn’t a method that I learned during my formal education, but one that I learned through helping my grandmother.”

Heather Ridge is committed to local foods for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is its high quality. “Commercially grown produce has traveled such a distance by the time that it reaches my kitchen that it really suffers in quality,” he

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says. “There is also no guarantee as to the farming practices behind its production. As much of our produce as possible comes from local farms that we have a direct relationship with. I know the farmers, their employees, and also how they grow their produce, and I trust them to do a good job.”

At the intimate supper club and with the breakfast and lunch offerings as well, Handel blends this philosophy with a creative spirit. A recent

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menu featured a steak tartare of hand-cut grassfed steak with farm-brined nasturtium capers, fermented rye berries and egg yolk, served in a tuille made with Toma Celena (a cheese from Cooperstown Cheese Company). There was a deconstructed pasta carbonara of handmade pasta filled with caramelized onions and ricotta cheese made on the farm, in rich cured pork broth and topped with salt-cured egg yolk.

Handel says he’s excited about new projects at the farm that will give him even more to work with. Like more poultry. “Up until now we’ve raised chicken and turkey each year,” he says, “but this year we’re adding duck, goose, and guinea fowl to the roster.”

There will also be some home-grown hard-tofind produce varieties. “This includes varieties of peppers that I use in my moles,” he says, “plus heirloom beans and polenta, rare Asian greens and uncommon herbs. I’m also looking forward to the warm weather bringing on an assortment of wild mushrooms to work with.”

A

t Maybelle in Catskill, chef Matthew Smallwood trained at the Culinary Institute of America and got his chops at Blue Hill/Stone Barns in Tarrytown, Swoon Kitchen Bar in Hudson and Another Fork in the Road in Milan. Inspired by the local as well, Smallwood

June – September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley was CIA-trained. His “Comfort Food. Redefined.” menu includes local buttermilk and bacon, pairs fennel and black radish, and currently features a house-made chicken and ramp sausage with foraged ramps, fiddleheads and nettles, plus a duck leg en confit with arugula, flageolet beans and fiddleheads.

The CIA seems to be as committed to local as anyone, and although other than a few specialty gardens they don’t farm on-site. The CIA spends nearly a million dollars a year on local products, according to communications manager Jeff Levine.

“We strongly support Hudson Valley farmers,” he has told me. Fruit and vegetables, mushrooms, dairy, eggs, honey, syrup and meat come from about two dozen farmers and producers who are for the most part within 35 miles of campus. The local food is used in dishes in the on-campus restaurants and as part of the culinary training as well.

CIA associate dean in culinary fundamentals chef Cynthia Keller explained, “Knowing our sources, considering our effects on land and community, and looking at ways to be sustainable: it’s a movement we’re very active in.” The students are learning how local products can enhance what they cook, learning to cook local as they’re learning to cook.

Learning to cook local, whether from culinary school or one’s grandmother, is about more than how far away the food comes. It’s about seasonality as well, a worthy ideal as our growing season

WOODSTOCK

TENNIS

starts to gather steam.

“I think that cooking with local ingredients lends a quality to the meal outside of flavor,” says chef Handel of the Bees Knees Cafe. “Dishes pre-

pared in season with local foods just feel ‘right’ at the time that they’re prepared. They not only have a sense of place, but a sense of time within that place.”

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– September 2015 16 | June Explore Hudson Valley

Besotted with landscape We live in a very beautiful area, says Staats Fasoldt, maybe the most beautiful in the country

T

hirty-two years ago I began teaching at The Woodstock School of Art. I found myself outdoors with students, teaching in the beautiful Woodstock landscape. Though it had never been explicitly stated that I was to teach outdoors, a vacuum had been created when Bob Angeloch ended his landscape painting class and moved indoors to his print shop.

I was a new instructor with limited knowledge of Woodstock. Bob gave me a tour of local painting spots. He drove me around the town to California Quarry, Magic Meadow, and several places along the Sawkill. Unfortunately, it was a rainy, foggy day, and we could see only a few feet in front of us. After scrambling up a wet precipice standing at the edge of a cliff looking out at dense grey fog, Bob said with a dramatic and somewhat furtive sweep of his hand, “Over here is a mountain, and here you can see the village nestled among the trees. This is a really great spot.”

I became the outdoor painting teacher and explored the many nooks and crannies of Woodstock landscape. In time I returned to all these places in better weather. They were indeed all good spots at which to paint. I also learned quickly that the true beauty of a landscape painting site depended on the availability of parking and bathrooms. A good restaurant nearby didn’t hurt, either.

In that ancient era painting outdoors was called

STAATS FASOLDT

outdoor painting, or simply landscape painting.

At some point the term plein air snuck into our vocabulary, probably popularized by some Don Draper type to help sell painting workshops. The term had the advantage of being French, always a plus in the arts, and of being not quite understandable. I’ve had hundreds of conversations on its meaning and pronunciation, but it seems obvious to me that it means painting outdoors.

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COLLECTION OF STAATS FASOLDT

We owe our love of outdoor painting to the French, of course. The brilliant Claude Monet and his Impressionist friends made it a heroic and iconic act to get out of the studio and work in the field. No artist can look at Monet’s work and not want to go out side and try it for themselves. It’s almost always sunny in his paintings, with family and friends around, and parties going on nearby.

Their work displays an ideal state of a peaceful, cultured life.

I can’t leave out our own Hudson River School, the first indigenous school of American art whose activity was centered in the Hudson Valley. A little earlier than the Impressionists, our school was a little more romantic but totally besotted with the Hudson Valley landscape. Sublime was the word they used to describe it, and so it was and still is, able to elicit esthetic arrest in a viewer. Just cross the Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge at sunset for a sample dose, or stand at the eastern end of North Lake looking out over the Hudson, the very spot to which the Hudson River painters laboriously trekked.

We live in a very beautiful area, maybe the most beautiful in the country. Most of my outdoor painting excursions have been within driving distance of the Woodstock School of Art. You need go no further.

A whole industry has developed to serve the

June – September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley

| 17

Favorite places to paint outdoors Sawkill Reservoir If you are in front of the majestic Woodstock School of Art, take a left out of the parking lot onto Route 212 past the unusually attractive Woodstock sewage treatment plant and take a right on the Sawkill Road. Travel approximately a mile and a half, going past the former elementary school and the tennis courts to the former Sawkill Reservoir, the first large body of water on the left.

Pull into the nice little dirt parking lot where the artist shares space with the fishermen.

There is a lovely grassy hill down to the water. Across the water is a brickand-stone pumphouse which rates pretty high on the charm gauge. Directly behind it is a gentle waterfall which in spring can be mighty. Trails lead in several directions. My favorite, to the left, leads to a charming wooded peninsula with plenty of shade and almost always a gentle breeze, offering several perfect views of water, trees and wildlife.

There are often some herons there and a wide variety of bird life. We have seen very large turtles, eagles and many jumping fish. Fishermen are welcome additions to our compositions. Here we reconnect with nature and recharge our ecstatic batteries. Ten minutes from the center of Woodstock.

Saugerties Lighthouse A little farther to travel. it’s well worth actually leaving Woodstock for the sandy, tree-lined walk out to the restored Hudson River lighthouse. There is nothing quite like this spot to experience the Hudson at its most magnificent.

There are several places to paint on the walk out, the large bay on your left with fisher kings and herons, plenty of shade, and an almost exotic feel to the flora and fauna. As you near the lighthouse the trees recede, and you are surrounded by large grasses eight feet high swaying in the breeze. You get your first view of the lighthouse from here and experience the immensity of the Hudson. There’s a very nice back porch to sit and paint on. The lighthouse is an active bed-and-breakfast for those who need a longer stay. 25 minutes from the village green in Woodstock. outdoor painter’s needs, from the nearly perfect piece of basswood engineering called the French easel to clever modern variants of metal plastic and polymers. Paint kits range in size from something that will fit in the palm of you hand to elaborate-wheeled small vehicles. Clothes, bags, boots and fragrances are all made specifically for the outdoor painter.

When I began painting outdoors I usually sat on the ground on a blanket, palette beside me. Nowadays, my sitting on the ground to paint requires strong people to help get me up when I am done. I finally bought a French easel, which since then has remained my basic easel. Weighing six pounds, it’s the smaller version called the half-box, with straps

COLLECTION OF STAATS FASOLDT

Big Deep Just down the road from the school is Big Deep, a longtime favorite summer swimming spot for the natives. Several dirt roads lead to it. It has a tree-lined, open sandy beach and relatively deep water, over your head at a few spots. It’s a lovely, intimate place to paint at: trees, streams nice rock formations, and in summer willing models in varying degrees of dress. An artist’s paradise, and nice for anyone on a hot day. Just ten minutes at the most from the center of Woodstock.

Katterskill Falls This is the fourth of my three favorite painting spots. In our backyard and one of the primary Hudson River School destination spots, it’s off Route 23A near Haines Falls. There is a good scramble up a hill to get to the trail, and then a generally easy half-mile hike to the falls themselves. Bring snacks and plan to stay a while. Perhaps 45 minutes from Woodstock.

so I can wear it like a backpack. I bring a canvas bag with my pallet and brushes, water and lunch.

This bag also has a strap and can be worn, keeping the hands free, which is good on rough trails.

For pleasant outdoor work you must have a hat (wide brim preferably), bug repellant for mosquitoes, which otherwise can ruin your day. Good comfortable shoes. Long pants, to protect you from poison ivy, socks over the bottom of the pant leg to deter ticks. Sunblock.

When I began working outdoors there were no ticks with Lyme following us. There is today, and it’s a real problem for outdoor activity.

I’ve been treated twice for Lyme and have many friends who suffer from the results of it. You really must check yourself for ticks after being in nature. It has changed the way I think about outdoor painting.

The outdoor painting experience is good for your health. You will experience moments of peace, and can reconnect some of your disparate psychic parts split of in the struggle with the modern world. You can experience the mind of Monet for a little while and walk away smiling, with a slight French accent. But do check for Monsieur Tick

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– September 2015 18 | June Explore Hudson Valley

Swimming holes Corinne Mol discloses open secrets and secret secrets

A

great way to survive sweating hot days and to get the most out of summer is a dip in your favorite river, stream, lake or pond.

Why would I reveal the secret cooling spots of the Hudson Valley?

Well, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.

I carefully screen the recipients of the Catskills’ best secret trails, and if you are a local I hope you will, too!

If you’re not a local, though, don’t fret. There are plenty of places that are public knowledge with easy access and plenty of charm. An intimate stream? A grand river? The vista of a beautiful lake surrounded by forested slops? Take your pick.

Be reminded that these are not the beaches of Long Island or the Jersey Shore. Exercise caution.

Heed warnings.

My eleven-year-old daughter loves the social scene at Woodstock’s local swimming holes.

We cruise her favorite Sawkill Creek spots along Millstream Road in Woodstock, looking for her friends. They butt-slide over the rocks and dive off underwater ledges into the grand pools.

It’s easy enough to find these very public Woodstock places. But if you’re an outsider, how can you discover more secluded, hidden spots?

You might befriend locals and invite them on picnics. Promise to bring the picnic basket if they’ll take you to their favorite spot. Torturing them with relentless requests, bribery, manipulation and nagging occasionally works, too.

There are stretches of creeks that are in the pub-

HARRY MATTHEWS

lic domain to be found by looking at Department of Environmental Conservation maps.

You are not allowed to swim in New York City reservoirs. That doesn’t stop a few fools from risk-

Maverick Concerts

100 Years of Music in the Woods Every Weekend t June 20–Sept. 13 Chamber Music Jazz Young People’s Concerts 120 Maverick Road t Woodstock Tickets: 800-595-4849 www.maverickconcerts.org

ing the consequences and going for a midnight swim. It’s not worth it.

Here are some of the open secrets among the more public places to which I like to go.

The Saugerties Beach: A great place for kids, with a playground, a dock to jump off, and a big deep sandy pond-like area on the Esopus Creek.

Warnings 1) Watch out for black water snakes skimming on the surface. Their fangs, while not poisonous, harbor bacterial flora known for nasty infections that just won’t heal.

2) Green slime on smooth rocks worn by water.

Learn to read the stones, knowing which ones are safe to step on, which ones will send you thumping onto your tailbone.

3) Leeches. They frighten squeamish people and lurk in pond muck. They don’t hurt, and it doesn’t take much to dislodge them, but they might leave drips of blood from thousands of tiny razorblade teeth after they’ve injected their anti-coagulating serum.

4) In the Hudson River especially, watch out for European water chestnuts, aka “devil’s heads,” on the beaches and river floor. Big, sharply pointed thorns are ready to puncture your flesh.

5) Don’t drink the water. Giardia is prevalent in our waters, and many areas have high coliform counts, especially after it rains.

6) Carcinogenic PCBs in the Hudson River. Locations downstream from the General Electric plant have been dredged, but that doesn’t mean they’re all gone.

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June – September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley

| 19

Words to the wise

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ear river shoes wherever you swim!

Always.

Keep a bathing suit, towel, and river shoes in the trunk of your car. You never know when you are going to be dying for a swim and pass a tempting spot.

Don’t trespass. Look carefully for no-trespassing signs and respect them.

Get out of the water when you hear thunder.

Swimming naked is good. Swimming naked at night is better. Swimming naked at night in the full moon is best.

North Kingston Beach: Beautiful vistas of the Rhinebeck/Kingston bridge, picnic tables, swimming, and a boat launch.

Tubing the Esopus: You can rent an inner tube in Phoenicia. There is a minimum age. It’s for big people only. There are rapids and some risk of bruises, cuts and more serious injuries.

Onteora Lake off Route 28: It has no beach to speak of. You enter the water carefully on large boulders, but then there’s a big warm lake for a long leisurely swim.

North/South Lake near Tannersville: a great place for kids. It has a campground, two sandy beaches, canoes and kayaks to rent, wonderful trails, and a playground. The ice-cream truck visits regularly.

HARRY MATTHEWS

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– September 2015 20 | June Explore Hudson Valley

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Summer in the Valley

part 2 of 2

Where to have fun

Music and theater, festivals and fireworks, county fairs and 4H farmers, plus the best places for kids, and a reminder about summer dangers.

â&#x20AC;&#x201C; September 2015 22 | June Explore Hudson Valley

County fairs of the Hudson Valley Jen Holz captures the rare beauty of 4H youth

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boy rests against a snoozing goat, his cowboy hat tipped over his eyes, her Nubian ears softy flicking against his cheek. He lifts an eyelid and then closes it again. Above him, a white western shirt with shiny pearl snaps hangs, moving gently in a soft breeze.

Their breathing is slow and synchronized. In a few minutes, he and the other 4H kids will swing over blue steel rails and begin preparing for the dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s event: the show ring. They know exactly what to do, where to go. They belong.

A bright-faced child looks up at lights and a wall of multi-colored stuffed toys. A tanned carnival vendor smiles and offers her a free game. She looks to mom, who hesitates, then sidles closer. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Okay, once.â&#x20AC;? The child throws, throws again, again. Bells ring. â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;Śaaaand we have a winnerrrr!â&#x20AC;? the vendor sings.

Gazes turn, smile, the childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s face beatific, curls backlit with neon halo. A winner. Just like that.

The vendor beams as people move closer. The happy child walks away, a fuzzy blue toy in one hand and mamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hand in the other. They return to the safety of the livestock barns, enough excitement for now.

Tomorrow the child will put on her ironed green polo shirt and give her first public presentation ever: the anatomy of a guinea pig. She is five. The judge will listen, nod, and ask questions before giving her a rainbow ribbon. For the next 13 years, this child will return. Each time she will venture a little further.

A gang of scrubbed teens attacks the midway,

JOSH HOLZ

cellphones tucked into their wrangler pockets, faces turned up expectantly, blue, red, green, pink lights reflected in their smiles. They know this place. They know where everything is â&#x20AC;&#x201C;â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the roller coaster, tilt-a-whirl, popcorn, cokes, BBQ. They know the vendors, where the stage is, and what

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time the band begins. They check their phones occasionally, texting home base, checking on their animals, siblings. Most of these kids grew up in the show ring, swinging over the blue railings to feed their livestock, minding the younger kids, managing the milkshake booth and snack bars, running errands for the leaders and judges. This is their turf. Their place. Fair season has begun. In the next month, the Hudson Valley will ring with the song of carnival vendors and livestock, and thousands will find their way back to their fairgrounds.

Every fair is different. Some, like Putnam, are 4H-driven affairs meant to showcase the achievements of agricultural youth. Others, like Orange, are all about the midway: rides, games, food, and derbies. Still others, like Dutchess, are grand and groomed, boasting rows of shiny cattle, acres of pristine heritage buildings, koi ponds with water

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June – September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley

JOSH HOLZ

JEN HOLZ

lilies, a vast midway, and world-class talent.

The Ulster County Fair in New Paltz, my personal alma mater, is a happy mix of midway and agriculture. Its 4H presence embraces urban and underrepresented communities, technical and international programs, and still continues traditional livestock and agricultural events. And while the Hudson Valley publications typically list the big five fairs, intrepid travelers will be rewarded for exploring beyond the corridor. Loyal patrons wax poetic about Schoharie’s rural authenticity and Columbia’s green grass and dairy shows. Each fair has a unique appeal that goes beyond its exhibits; each has its own place.

County fairs in and around Hudson Valley: Orange County Fair: Middletown, July 22August 2; 343-4826.Most known for its midway, including rides, games, great demolition derby, antique fire trucks, arts and crafts, and culinary exhibits. Not as much livestock, but you will find an FFA exhibit and petting zoo.

Putnam County Fair: Carmel, July 24, 25, 26; 278-6738.“The county fair with an old-fashioned flair,” this three-day fair is a 4H-oriented event, lots of show animals, science fair, vegetables, exhibits, pony rides, horse show, chicken barbecue, master gardener plant sale, science and magic show.

Ulster County Fair: New Paltz, July 28 - August 2; 255-1380.Immensely popular and easily accessible, both 4H and open class livestock shows, games and rides, pig races, tractor pulls, milkshake booth, police K9 demos, wool-spinning demos, vendors, star entertainment.

Dutchess County Fair: Rhinebeck, August 2530; 876-4000. This flagship fair encompasses162 acres of beautifully groomed grounds, a mission to showcase local agriculture, big-name entertainment, waterfalls, koi ponds, famous horticulture and heritage buildings, 4H and open class livestock shows, games, rides, and renowned milkshake booth … just plain awesome.

Columbia County Fair: Chatham, September 2-7; 518-392-2121. In its 175th year, this country fair boasts heritage buildings from the 1800s, lots of grass and trees, both 4H and open class livestock shows, a substantial dairy show, pie contest, midway, petting zoo, derby, headline entertainment, tractor pull, rodeo, and milkshake booth.

Greene County Youth Fair: Cairo, July 23-26.

Another 4H-driven event, you’ll find lots of youth exhibits and livestock shows, free admission and entertainment –– very agricultural.

Schoharie County Sunshine Fair: Cobleskill, August 1-8; 518-234-2123. Rides, petting zoo, pony and camel rides, rodeo, demo derby, tractor pull, horse arena, historic buildings, line dancing, 4H and open class livestock shows. Loyal fans say this wonderfully old school fair is worth the trip north.

A pair of tweens hurry along, one hauling a poster titled “Sustainable Agriculture in Urban Communities,” the other clutching a handful of blue ribbons that flutter along behind her. Their knees are scratched, noses, cheeks and shoul-

ders sunburned, faces dappled with bright midway lights. Vendors are packing up their wares, Administrators, leaders and parents hurry along with clipboards, cages, cellphones.

It’s the last day, sunset, and the fair is packing up. The boy hurries to the sheep and goat barn where dad is backing up the truck. The girl heads to the poultry barn, now a flurry of activity as kids fold up cages, stacking them in great heaps before sweeping the floors. Cows call as their humans coax them into long trailers. Food vendors wrangle cords and buckets, selling off the last of the day’s specials. The sky rumbles as an unseasonal cool breeze sneaks into the mix. Oldtimers look up, mindful of late summer storms.

| 23

By midnight, the grounds will be empty. Everyone, vendors to kids, will have scattered in a thousand directions. And next year, they will return, along with everyone who feels the pull.

Places hold us.

Note: There will be no poultry shown at any New York fairs this summer. While no avian flu has been detected in the state, there was an outbreak in the Midwest, State Ag. and Markets officials are being especially cautious. Current influenza strains are not a threat to humans. The state continues to take a strong and proactive stance regarding biosecurity to keep our flocks safe.

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SYMPHONY GALA WITH THE HUDSON VALLEY PHILHARMONIC VLADIMIR FELTSMAN, CONDUCTING July 31 at 8:00 p.m.

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INSTITUTE EVENTS Recitals, piano competitions, master classes, lectures – all open to the public.

Visit www.newpaltz.edu/piano for a complete schedule.

– September 2015 24 | June Explore Hudson Valley

PHOTO CARE OF WOODSTOCK CHAMBER OF ART & COMMERCE

Attendance is activism John Burdick surveys the regional musical scene with a fine-tooth comb

A

s press releases, event announcements, links, lineups, and requests for coverage race across my virtual desk like a flickering news ticker in a time of multiple crises, I can’t help but be alarmed by how active, ambitious, diverse and high-quality the mid-Hudson Valley live music environment has become. I’m alarmed, because I know how endangered and temporary a renaissance like this can be and how dependent it is on audiences, the elephant that may or may not be in the room.

Right now, in our midst we have a delirious overgrowth of talent, homegrown and urban refugee, names you know and names you will know, jazz legends you can walk right up to as though they were ordinary people, New Paltz and Kingston indie bands getting signed and getting coverage in Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, the still-vital luminaries and heirs of the Woodstock folk and rock scenes of the Sixties and Seventies. We have intrepid music-first venues and promoters of all kinds. We have historic theaters that cater to all tastes to the college- and church-hosted programs that preserve classical repertoire and incubate new serious music. We have the national-circuit

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tique listening rooms, and ad-hoc street venues in practically every town.

It’s a paralyzing surfeit of sound in some ways.

Too much to do, too much to hear, too much to get hip to. In summer, it gets especially thick. There is almost no logical, comprehensive or reassuring way to lay it all out for the good people of the valley. There is, quite simply, a panic of world-class music out there, every night. The key is to keep a cool head and make the scene as your time and resources allow. Do your part, express your preferences with your presence.

Attendance is activism, but you can only do so much. The summer festivals ask a lot and deliver a lot; the night-to-night in the clubs and theaters is low-commitment by comparison but perhaps contributes even more importantly to the noble ideal of long-term sustainability.

In the fields Summer festivals, which start well before midJune, are the binge viewing of the music world, mega-doses of genre-focused music, often unified statements of culture, art, cuisine and political and social affinities as well. The mid Hudson-Valley seems to have been transformed into Festival Central, with established and in many cases bestof-breed events in nearly all genres from folk (new

June â&#x20AC;&#x201C; September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley

PHOTO PROVIDED BY HELSINKI HUDSON

and traditional) to experimental serious music.

Festivals are a win-win-win for artists, audiences and promoters. They allow for the sharing of audiences and production resources, and provide a way for us country folk to approximate the population density that fosters urban scenes.

Typically, festivals are niche concerns, ephemeral cities of the like-minded. Their size and the wow factor of their lineups are determined by how wide a niche they serve. While Mountain Jam, one of the granddaddies of the new rock festivals, have been busy preparing Mr. Plantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s green room and readying its three stages, the staff at Bethel will still be clearing away the last of the spent glow bracelets from Mysteryland USA, the touring international electronic music and arts festival that rather inconspicuously drew more than 50,000 digital people to old man Yasgurâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s place.

True, a few of the more ambitious indie and alt festivals in the area, such All Tomorrowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Parties (for which legends such as My Bloody Valentine and Pavement would reunite), Truck, and the Hudson Music Project are gone, on hiatus, or at least in jeopardy (nobody said this game was easy). But the hip fringe still has Basillica in Hudson, whose most recent festival was a 24-hour drone. The electro-hip of the Wassaic Project Festival goes down July 31 to August 2 in Wassaic, and O+â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s non-hostile takeover of uptown Kingston happens in October.

Meanwhile, Full Moon in Big Indian hosts the programming and workshops of Woodstockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legendary Creative Music Studio. Woodstock stages its next-gen Saturday-on-the-green concert series all the way through September. Beacon Riverfest, a lively one-day festival on June 28, is headlined this year by the Sierra Leone Refugee Allstars, Tracy Bonham, and a brace of New Paltz and Kingstonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finest indie bands such as What Moon Things, Shana Falana, and recent Bar/None Records signee Breakfast in Fur. Folk-music enthusiasts are especially well served in the land of Seeger. Peteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own Clearwater Festival (Croton Point Park, June 20 and 21) is ironically among the most daring and least docThe 1850 House Inn & Tavern A boutique hotel in historic Rosendale, NY.

trinal of all the folk festivals, typically featuring plenty of rock and global fusions as well as a requisite share of folk puristry. This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s headliners include David Crosby, Neko Case and Los Lobos, but check the website, for this festivalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lineup, per usual, is staggeringly deep.

The sprawling Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (July 31 to August 2) is loose and groovy, a natural complement to the more banjo-centric (and starstudded) Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, (July 16 to 19 in Oak Hill, near Durham). Closest to home for most of us is the Summer Hoot at the Ashokan Center in late August. The Hoots always boast an impressive lineup of nationals and locals (not yet announced for 2015). Their cultural and commu-

| 25

nity purpose is every bit as much the star.

Although their definition of festival is different and considerably less bacchanalian, fans of serious music find our summer offerings no less inspiring.

Bard Summerscape leads the way, this year interrogating the work and times of Mexican composer and conductor Carlos ChĂĄvez in August, staging Ethyl Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opera The Wreckers, and providing piquant entertainment practically nightly in the upscale, surreal Spiegeltent.

Part workshop, part festival, New Paltz PianoSummer, under the leadership of virtuoso Vladimir Feltsman, blocks out July with world-class piano performances and elite mentorship for select students. The Music and Art Center of Greene County, one of the oldest classical music summer concert series in the region, offers outstanding performances in the architecturally unique Grazhda hall, an integral part of the Ukrainian cultural complex built around St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church in Jewett.

In Woodstock, the Maverickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s summer season of chamber music (and, now, some jazz and childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s music as well) is simply among the very best in the world. The Phoenicia Festival of the Voice (July 29 to August 2) recruits absurdly outsize talent to the little mountain town that could. Nearby, Mount Tremper Arts, now entering its eighth season, offers one of the most uncompromising, cerebral and experimental lineups of serious music and performance to be found anywhere north of the city. The MTA Summer Festival runs from July 11 to August 22.

In the streets The big story in the valley in the last decade is the emergence of several thriving national-circuit clubs and theaters. At one time, there was only The Chance in Poughkeepie, the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, and that remote jewel, the Towne Crier CafĂŠ in faraway Pawling.

The Towne Crier has relocated to a larger new facility in Beacon, a more convenient spot for most of us. It continues to provide a diversity of world-class roots, singer-songwriter, and blues for mature tastes. Across the street, Quinnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s caters to the avant-garde and the outrĂŠ. A bit fur-

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â&#x20AC;&#x201C; September 2015 26 | June Explore Hudson Valley ther down Main Street, the historic and beautiful Howland Center hosts an abundance of chamber music (much of which is recorded for broadcast or commercial release because of the Howlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s phenomenal acoustics).

Plying a similar stylistic vein as the Town Crier but many miles to the north is Club Helsinki in Hudson, a venue that made its name in a tiny space in Massachusetts before relocating to a beautifully renovated, acoustically fine industrial building on Columbia Street. Around the corner, The Half Moon in Hudson rocks hard, while the

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ents, the huge booking agency that handles many of New York Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finest rooms, such as Bowery Ballroom, Terminal 5, and the Music Hall of Williamsburg. How this plays out remains to be seen.

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pect to see Bowery Presents respecting the local aesthetic as well. In some ways, the Bowery Presents/Bearsville deal is emblematic of the current state of mid-Hudson music. Vital and promising, incomparably rich, confusing, and still very much to be defined.

SUMMER EVENTS Sun, Jun 14 11:00 am - 5:30 pm 2nd Annual Holistic Psychic and Music Festival Sat, Jun 20 3:30 pm - 7:30 pm The Peace Caravan. BeneďŹ t for the Woodstock Peace Festival. Baird Hersey, Levanta, SRI Kirtan, Pulse Field/Soundshifter, Amy McTear Fri, Jul 10 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Opening Reception - opening reception for Nancy Ostrovsky art exhibit Fri, Aug 14 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm Opening Reception - Saugerties Artists Studio Tour Group Show Aug 15-16 Tad Richards Studio open Sat, Sep 5, 5-7 pm Robbie Dupree See our website or Facebook page for more events as theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re scheduled!

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Spotty Dog on the main strip, Warren Street, is one of the few truly prestigious bookstore music venues you will find, as well as one of the few that has micro-brews on tap.

When Tony Falco moved The Falcon from his barn loft to the current spacious location on Route 9W in Marlboro, we lost one of our best boutique listening rooms and gained an almost shockingly world-class jazz, blues, rock, and world-music establishment that routinely brings in the biggest cats and next big things from New York City player world and beyond.

Fans of the kind of independent and alternative music that has seldom found purchase in the area genuflect daily in gratitude for the revitalization of BSP, a venue on Wall Street in Kingston that, thanks to the tireless legwork and due diligence of Output Agency, has developed a reputation as a major stepping-stone club for the smartest, hippest, upward bound indie acts. Kingston enjoys the sweetly remodeled Anchor on Broadway and continual avant-garde programming at PaulineOliverosâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Deep Listening space.

The peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s republic of Rosendale boasts several hopping venues, including Market Market (where tastes are not all that dissimilar to BSPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s) and the always-vital Rosendale CafĂŠ, who routinely book leading names in Americana, jazz and blues. New Paltz is a late-night bar scene, of course. Check in at Snug Harbor (38 Main Street) some night if you want to remember what an intense, sweaty and packed bar show looks and feels like. Despite what you might think, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not too old for it.

One of the owners of the Rail Trail CafĂŠ at the River Road Extension outside of New Paltz is the great drummer Brian Farmer of Futu Futu fame. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no surprise that this novel and rustic rail-trail eatery will be hosting the Music in the Woods series, live music on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the summer.

Inspired by the wild success of the Hudson Valley Sudbury School monthly benefit, the Old Glenford Church and hall in Glenford (south of Woodstock off Route 28) is now expanding its offerings. At another jewel of a listening room, the Empire Railway Museum in Phoenicia, Flying Cat music is now resuming its regular, Amercianaand Celtic-leaning shows featuring well-known national acts such as Lucinda Williamsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; producer and sideman, Gurf Morlix.

The big news at the Bearsville Theater is the recently announced partnership with Bowery Pres-

| 27

3 Mindfulness Road, Pine Bush, NY 12566 | in the peaceful Catskill region 845-213-1785 | office@bluecliffmonastery.org bluecliffmonastery.org | miracleofmindfulnesstour.org

– September 2015 28 | June Explore Hudson Valley

All the world’s a stage Fran Platt presents a comprehensive survey of regional cultural events

B

ard SummerScape, June 25-August 16, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson.

Bard SummerScape brings topnotch performers in the fields of music – including classical, opera and cabaret – as well as theater, dance and cinema to the Bard College campus for seven weeks each summer. The extravaganza is organized around the Bard Music Festival, which each year examines the life, work and cultural milieu of a single composer through concerts of both orchestral and chamber music, pre-concert talks and panel discussions. This year’s focus will be on Carlos Chavéz (1899-1978), offering “The Musical Voice of Mexico,” from August 7 to 9 and “Mexico, Latin America and Modernism” from August 13 to 16.

Opening weekend at SummerScape always spotlights a world-class dance company, and this year Pam Tanowitz Dance will perform on June 27 and 28, accompanied by the Flux Quartet.

SummerScape is renowned for dusting off rarely performed operas, and perhaps the most exciting event in this year’s lineup will be the very first full staging in America of Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers. Performances of the opera by the American Symphony Orchestra with guest vocalists will take place on July 24, 26, 29, 31 and August 2.

This year’s theatrical offering will be an inventive, interactive restaging of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! performed in the round, with audience members seated at long tables to share food and song with the actors. Daniel Fish directs. There will be 25 performances between June 25 and July 19: Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons and Thursday through Sunday evenings. Outdoors, Fernando Rubio’s performance/installation Everything by My Side will be presented from July 9 through 12.

“Reinventing Mexico,” a series of films related to the Bard Music Festival theme, will run on weekends from July 11 to August 2. And it wouldn’t be a Hudson Valley summer without a visit to the glorious Spiegeltent, with food, drink, late-night dancing and great cabaret acts throughout SummerScape’s run, including the B-52s’ Kate Pierson on August 8 and three “Harlem on the Hudson” evenings from the Catskill Jazz Factory.

Ticket prices for Bard SummerScape events typically range from $25 to $95 ($10 for film screenings). For full details on performers, programs, locations, dates, times and prices for all events, visit http://fishercenter.bard.edu/summerscape.

Bard College is off River Road in Annandale-onHudson. 758-7900.

PHOTO CARE OF MAC-HAYDN THEATER

Powerhouse Theater, June 26-August 2, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

Powerhouse Theater, a collaboration between Vassar and New York Stage and Film, presents stage works in various phases of development, from early stages of “workshopping” to full-blown productions. This is your chance to see the creative process in action, catching dramas and musicals by heavy-hitters in the field before they hit the Great White Way. Mainstage productions this season include the world premiere of Keith Bunin’s The Unbuilt City, directed by Tony nominee Sean Mathias, from July 1 to 12; and The Light Years, a project of the Debate Society, set at the 1893 and 1933 Chicago World’s Fairs, from July 23 to August 2.

There will be three Martel Musical Workshops at Powerhouse this summer: A musical adaptation

by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson of Somerset Maugham’s Rain, directed by Barry Edelstein (but with the casting for Sadie Thompson yet to be announced as of press time), will be performed July 10 through 12. From July 17 to 19, a musical based on the groundbreaking miscege-

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nation case Loving V. Virginia by Marcus Gardley and Justin Ellington will be directed by Patricia McGregor. And July 31 to August 2 will see the unveiling of the latest project by Tony/Grammywinner Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening, American Psycho), in collaboration with Kyle Jarrow and directed by Rachel Chavkin: Noir, about a reclusive apartment-dweller who becomes obsessed with eavesdropping on his neighbors.

Inside Look workshops at Powerhouse 2015 will include Desire, six new short plays based on Tennessee Williams stories by playwrights including Beth Henley and John Guare. Michael Wilson directs, and it runs from July 2 to 5. Anna Ziegler’s

The Last Match, about a tennis confrontation between Russia and the US, will be presented from July 17 to 19, with Gaye Taylor Upchurch directing.

Tickets cost $40 to Mainstage productions, $30 to workshops, but the Powerhouse season also includes some free offerings. Reserve your seat by phone for the two annual readings festivals of plays in early stages of development, presented from June 26 to 28 and from July 31 to August 2. Or just show up for the outdoor performances of classics by the Powerhouse Apprentice Company: Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom from July 17 through 19 and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night July 10 through 12 and Much Ado about Nothing July

June â&#x20AC;&#x201C; September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley 23 through 25.

For more information on specific performances, locations on campus, dates and times, or for tickets and reservations, call the Powerhouse box office at 437-5599 or visit http://powerhouse.vassar. edu/boxoffice.

Mount Tremper Arts Summer Festival, July 11-August 22, Mount Tremper.

Contemporary dance, music, performance and spoken word are the areas of focus of the Summer Festival Mount Tremper Arts, bolstered by artsy barbecue nights. The schedule begins with camp, hosted by AUNTS and described as â&#x20AC;&#x153;a weeklong experiment in choreography, art, and collective living that culminates in live performanceâ&#x20AC;? on July 11.

On July 17 and 18, Skin Horse Theaterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nat & Veronica present the world premiere of Clouds/ Cows. On July 24 and 25, composer Dave Malloy and friends perform Ghost Quartet. Tom Chiu and the Flux Quartet perform the world premiere of Chiuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Retrocon on July 31 and August 1.

From August 7 to 9, the International Contemporary Ensemble performs David Langâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Whisper Opera. Playwright/director John Jahnke and Hotel Savant reinterpret Greek drama with Alas, the Nymphs August 14 and 15. Poets Tan Lin and Robert Fitterman read at the Pork and Poetry!

Art-B-Q event on August 22.

Admission to most events costs $20. For more information or to order tickets, call 866-811-4111 or 688-9893 or visit http://mounttremperarts. org. Mount Tremper Arts is on South Plank Road in Mount Tremper.

Shadowland Theatre, May 29-September 27, Ellenville.

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ty casts, often including famous names. Currently running through June 14 is Clybourne Park, Bruce Norrisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Tony and Pulitzer-winning hommage to A Raisin in the Sun, directed by James Glossman.

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| 29

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â&#x20AC;&#x201C; September 2015 30 | June Explore Hudson Valley August 7 to 30. And the last days of summer, September 4 to 27, herald a romantic Drama Deskwinning musical, Jason Robert Brownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Last Five Years, directed by Michael La Fleur.

Tickets for all Shadowland Theatre productions cost $39 for evening performances Thursday through Saturday, $34 for matinĂŠes on Sundays and the first Saturday of each playâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s run. For more information on casts, dates and times, to subscribe or reserve tickets, call the box office at 647-5511 or visit www.shadowlandtheatre.org. Shadowland is at 157 Canal Street in Ellenville.

Woodstock Playhouse, May 29-August 23, Woodstock.

One of the original theatres in the US to offer a summer stock season, the Woodstock Playhouse has expanded its lineup under new management for 2015, offering six shows instead of the usual four. The season opened with a production of Oliver! with a cast of youths from the New York Conservatory of the Arts. Upcoming shows begin with Steven Sater and Duncan Sheikâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tony-winning rock musical, Spring Awakening, running June 18 through 28.

The season continues July 9 through 19 with the kid-friendly musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a stage adaptation of the 1968 movie (Sherman Brothers songs included) that was in turn based upon a childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book by James Bond creator Ian Fleming. Next comes The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 by John Bishop, running July 23 to 25.

From July 30 through August 9, the Playhouse will stage a revival of Rodgers and Hammersteinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Oklahoma! that can reasonably be expected to be less unconventional than the version at Bard SummerScape. And the summer rep season winds up August 13 through 23 on a darker note with Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheelerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gruesomebut-gorgeous, Tony-winning Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Ticket prices for all productions range from $32 to $40, typically (but not always) with evening performance Thursday through Saturday and matinĂŠes on Sunday. For more details or to purchase tickets, call the box office at 679-6900 or visit www.woodstockplayhouse.org. Woodstock Playhouse is at 103 Mill Hill Road in Woodstock.

The Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck, May 15-September 20.

Community theater thrives year-round at this barnlike structure on the eastern outskirts of Rhinebeck, with many shows produced in-house Strawberry Festival June 14, noon to 5:00pm )UHVK PDGH VWUDZEHUU\ VKRUWFDNH VVWUDZEHUU\ VPRRWKLHV FKRFRODWH VWUDZEHUULHV 6SHFLDO IUHH VDPSOHV VPRNLQJ SODQNLQJ RI ORFDO UDLQERZ WURXW

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by Lou Trapani’s CenterStage Productions. The space serves as a temporary home for other local theater groups’ productions as well. This season kicked off with a CenterStage revival of Mel

Brooks’s The Producers, the run ending June 7 with Tracy Carney directing. But if you missed that, don’t fret: There are shows booked back-toback all summer.

| 31

From June 12 to 21, Lisa Lynds directs a production of the rarely seen 1970 Obie-winner The Me Nobody Knows. Based on the writings of innercity kids and set to music by Will Holt and Gary

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– September 2015 32 | June Explore Hudson Valley William Friedman, it’s the play that launched the young Irene Cara’s career. Then, on June 26, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s much-loved Seussical: The Musical takes over, directed by Emily DePew and running through July 12.

HMS Productions steps in with Michael Berkeley and Ray Roderick’s Rip! The Musical – about Rip van Winkle – the weekend of July 17 to 19, directed by Michael Berkeley. From July 24 to August 16, Center regulars Up in One Productions will present the stage adaptation of Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s 1952 Singin’ in the Rain film screenplay, snappy score intact. Good luck to director Kevin Archambault in finding an actor who can do the dancing-up-the-wall trick like Donald O’Connor!

The weekend of August 21 to 23 is dedicated to two fundraisers for the Center – a family magic show and a concert by Tony-winner Alice Ripley – plus a pay-what-you-will one-shot visit from the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival with The Tempest. The summer season wraps up from August 28 to September 20 with a Rhinebeck Theater Society production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, directed by Andy Weintraub.

Tickets for most shows at the Center for Per-

forming Arts at Rhinebeck – typically Friday and Saturday evening performances and Sunday matinees – cost $25 and $27. For more details and to make reservations, call the box office at 876-3080.

661 Route 308, Rhinebeck. Or go to www.centerforperformingarts.org.

Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, June 9-September 1, Boscobel, Garrison.

Open-air Shakespeare productions are a glorious summer tradition, and you can’t beat the spectacular setting of Boscobel, overlooking the Hudson Highlands in Garrison, which serves as home for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s tented theater. For 2015, new artistic director Davis McCallum will direct his first production for the troupe: the Bard’s late romance The Winter’s Tale, in which one character gets to “Exit, pursued by a bear.” This summer’s other Shakespeare production will be A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Eric Tucker.

Cycling in repertory throughout the season with these two will be The Arabian Nights, adapted

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for the stage by Mary Zimmerman and directed

by Lileana Blain-Cruz. There will also be a limited run of five performances of An Iliad, a oneactor play adapted from Homer by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare and directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch. And the festival’s training program for young actors, the Conservatory Company, will perform Shakespeare’s The Tempest several times, at Boscobel and on tour to various Hudson Valley venues.

Ticket prices vary widely based on production, date, location and seating; for more information or to order tickets, call the box office at 265-9575 or visit www.hvshakespeare.org. Plan to arrive up to two hours early, enjoy the view and have a picnic; picnic boxes catered by the Main Course in New Paltz can be preordered from the onsite café, given at least two days’ notice. Boscobel House & Gardens is at 1601 Route 9D, Garrison. Go to http://hvshakespeare.org.

Bird-on-a-Cliff Theatre Company, July 17-September 6, Comeau Park, Woodstock.

Another way to enjoy Shakespeare outdoors in the summer lies closer to home than Garrison, and considerably cheaper: Bird-on-a-Cliff ’s charming, relatively low-budget performances in the picnic-blanket atmosphere of the pastoral Comeau property just outside the hamlet. Admission is by donation, with $5 the suggested rate.

This summer’s Shakespeare production will be the Bard’s snarkiest rom/com, Much Ado about Nothing, running from July 17 to August 9. The second 2015 production will be an adaptation by Jerry James and David Aston-Reese of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, running from August 14 to September 6.

Performances start at 5 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with no reservations necessary.

Bring lawn chairs or blankets. For more information call 247-4007 or visit www.birdonacliff.org.

New Genesis Productions Summer Shakespeare, July 10-August 9, Little Globe Outdoor Stage, West Shokan.

The young thespian campers in the summer Shakespeare intensive programs offered by New Genesis present another way to catch some of the Bard’s work outdoors. This year the productions at the Little Globe will include The Comedy of Errors performed by 7-to-12-year-olds on the weekend of July 10 through 12; The Two Gentlemen of Verona by the 12-to-14-year-old group July 24 to 26; and The Merchant of Venice by 14-to-17-yearold actors August 7 to 9.

All performances begin at 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Admission is by donation ($8 suggested in years past). For more info call 657-5867 or visit www.newgenesisproductions.org.

Rondout Repertory Theatre, July 24-August 7, Rosendale and New Paltz.

Another summer Shakespeare program for youth in our region is the Rosendale-based Rondout Rep. Campers put on free performances in public spaces including the Water Street Market in New Paltz and Rosendale’s Willow Kiln Park.

This year’s production is Much Ado about Nothing, and the performance dates are July 24 to 26 and July 31 to August 2. For exact times, locations and other info, visit http://rondoutrep.com.

Arm-of-the-Sea Theater, June 6-September 27, various venues.

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Based in Saugerties, the mid-Hudson’s favorite giant puppetry troupe takes its two current traveling shows, Hook, Line & Sinker: Fishing the Hudson River and The Rejuvenary River Circus, around to festivals and outdoor public spaces throughout our region and beyond all summer long. The Rejuvenary River Circus will be performed at three venues this summer: the Clear-

June – September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley

| 33

a festival of performances by a distinguished faculty and visiting artists, on the SUNY-New Paltz campus. It culminates with the Jacob Flier Piano Competition, named after one of Feltsman’s mentors. Most of the associated events – even master classes – are open to the general public, and this year nearly all will be held in Studley Theatre in the Old Main Building.

PianoSummer 2015 kicks off with a faculty gala on July 11. Other highlights include recitals and master classes by special guest artists, who this year include Hung-Kuan Chen, Vladimir Ovchinnikov and Alexander Toradze. And the yet-tobe-determined 2015 Flier Competition winner will front the Hudson Valley Philharmonic in the season-ending symphony gala on July 31. You can also watch the young piano students compete on July 20 and 22.

Admission to a few of these campus events is free; for others, details on ticket prices will be available online after June 1. To order or to find out more, call the box office at 257-3880 or visit www.newpaltz.edu/piano.

PHOTO FROM POWERHOUSE THEATER

water Festival at Croton Point Park in Croton-onHudson on June 20 and 21, Town of Olive Day at Davis Park in West Shokan on September 12 and twice daily at the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties on September 26 and 27.

Arm-of-the-Sea’s newest opus, Hook, Line & Sinker will visit the Orange County Earth & Water Festival in Montgomery on June 6; Athens Community Day on June 13; the Beacon Strawberry Festival on June 14; the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston on June 27; the Saugerties Historical Society on July 24; the Dutchess Dragon Boat Festival at the Hudson River Rowing Association Community Boathouse in Poughkeepsie on July 25; Community Day at Upper Landing Park in Poughkeepsie on August 8; Henry Hudson Waterfront Park in Hudson on August 12; the Newburgh International Festival on September 6; and Norrie Point Environmental Center in Staatsburg on September 20.

Performances are mostly free of charge. For start times and other details, contact individual venues or visit http://armofthesea.org. Or call 246-7873.

The venues for these varied events, all within easy walking distance of one another, include the Festival Stage, Phoenicia Parish Field, the Phoenicia United Methodist Church, the St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, the Shandaken Theatrical Society Playhouse and Mama’s Boy Coffeeshop.

Admission is free to a few events; ticket prices otherwise range from $5 to $75 each, with a $170 Da Capo Pass getting you into all main stage events.

To find out more details or purchase tickets, call 688-1344 or visit www.phoeniciavoicefest.org.

PianoSummer, July 11-31, SUNY-New Paltz.

For 21 years, Russian émigré pianist Vladimir Feltsman has been organizing PianoSummer, which combines a summer institute for up-andcoming young pianists from all over the world with

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As of press time, Performing Arts of Woodstock has only announced one play in its summer lineup: Other Desert Cities, Jon Robin Baitz’s Pulitzernominated 2011 drama about a seriously dysfunctional California family. It runs June 12 to 14 and 19 to 21.

Tickets to the theater at 380 Upper Byrdcliffe cost $20 general admission, $15 for seniors and students. To purchase, or just to keep an eye out for upcoming productions, visit www.performingartsofwoodstock.org or call 679-7900.

Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, June 14-20, Tivoli.

Year-round dance events continue into the summer at the Kaatsbaan International Dance Center

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Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice, July 31-August 2, Phoenicia.

When this festival launched in 2009, it was predominantly a celebration of opera, but its programming in the years since has expanded fractally to include nearly every conceivable aesthetic application of the human voice. The three-day event in downtown Phoenicia is jam-packed with such tidbits as workshops on Appalachian shapenote singing, Inuit throat singing and the art of the cantor in Jewish liturgy, gospel, barbershop, pop and chamber concerts.

There’s also live theater, including a production of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music; Souvenir, Stephen Temperley’s play about the famously bad singer Florence Foster Jenkins; and the world premiere of Robert Manno’s play Do Not Go Gentle: The Last Days of Dylan and Caitlin. And yes, there’s opera – two of them, in fact: Menotti’s The Medium and Carlisle Floyd’s adaptation of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Among the celebrity singers participating this year will be the great mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade.

Performing Arts of Woodstock, June 12-21, Byrdcliffe Theater, Woodstock.

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in Tivoli. Grounded in the traditional performing arts of southern Asia, the Maya Dance Theatre appears on June 14. And international superstar choreographer Lar Lubovitch will be bringing his Dance Company to Kaatsbaan on June 20. Keep an eye on the website for announcements of new shows as the season progresses.

Tickets for most Kaatsbaan performances cost $30 for adults and $10 for students and children.

For information and reservations, call 757-5106, x10, or visit http://kaatsbaan.org/events.html.

Shandaken Theatrical Society, July 10-26, STS Playhouse, Phoenicia.

The only production that STS has so far announced for its playhouse at 10 Church Street in Phoenicia this summer is Little Shop of Horrors, the campy hit musical based on a 1960 Roger Corman comedy about a man-eating plant, with a score by Disney songwriting team Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Victoria McCarthy directs.

Performances will run Friday and Saturday eve-

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Coach House Players, July 10-19, Coach House Theatre, Kingston.

Based in a charmingly restored, gable-roofed old brick coachhouse at 12 Augusta Street in Kingston, this little community theatrical group typically only puts on four productions each year.

Its 2015 summer offerings will be its annual variety show on an as-yet-unspecified date in August and a July run of an Agatha Christie mystery, The Hollow. Barbara Melzer directs.

Performances will take place July 10 through 12 and 17 through 19. Tickets cost $20 general admission, $18 for seniors and children. To order, call 331-2476 or visit www.coachhouseplayers.org.

Bridge Street Theatre, June 5-27, Catskill.

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nings and Sunday matinĂŠes, July 10 to 12, 17 to 19 and 24 to 26.

Tickets cost $20 general admission, $15 for members, seniors and students. To order and for additional information, call 688-2279 or visit www.stsplayhouse.com.

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This two-year-old theatrical operation may be in the middle of an extensive renovation project, but the most critical piece is in place. In April, the theatre celebrated the opening of its new rest rooms with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Meanwhile, the show must go on, and a busy lineup has been announced for June.

On June 5, the Blue Horse Repertory Company presents Three by Tennessee (Williams), a benefit for the Theatre. An Evening with Jon B. Woodin takes place on June 6. Resident company Kaliyuga Arts christens its â&#x20AC;&#x153;raw spaceâ&#x20AC;? with performances of The Epic of Gilgamesh for two weekends, June 11 to 21, with John Sowle directing. And on June 27, Superhero Clubhouse presents a workshop production of Jupiter, a science fiction parable about climate change.

Ticket prices for all these events at 44 West Bridge Street range from $10 to $15. To order or for more information, call 518- 943-3894 or visit www.bridgestreettheatre.org.

Open Eye Theater, Margaretville.

Margaretvilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s community theater group at 960 Main Street, Open Eye, just wrapped up a produc-

June â&#x20AC;&#x201C; September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley tion of Anne of Green Gables in late May and had not yet announced its next show as of presstime.

To find out whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next, call 586-1660 or visit www. theopeneyetheater.org.

Franklin Stage Company, June 13-August 30, Chapel Hall, Franklin.

Way over on the western flank of the Catskills lies the little town of Franklin, whose busy community theater troupe at 25 Institute Street might just be worth a day trip â&#x20AC;&#x201C; especially since admission to all productions is free!

On June 13 and 14, the Franklin Stage Company welcomes Patricia Buckley performing her onewoman play Evolution. A workshop production of Oscar Wildeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s An Ideal Husband follows on June 25, 27 and 28. Obie-winner Chris Wells comes in on July 10 and 11 to present Stories from the Secret City. The Mettawee River Theatre Company brings its giant puppets to the Franklin Central School athletic field on July 12 as part of its farewell tour to perform a 40-year retrospective show called Out of the Past.

A workshop production of William Wycherleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Restoration comedy The Country Wife will run for two weekends, July 30 through August 2 and August 6 through 9. More classics will follow: A workshop production of Chekhovâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Three Sisters will be performed August 13 to 16 and 20 to 23. And a reading of Ibsenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s An Enemy of the People, with a teenage cast, will wrap up the month from August 28 to 30.

To reserve seats or find out more, call 607-8293700 or visit www.franklinstagecompany.org.

Ten-Minute Play Festival, Half Moon Theatre, June 12-13, Marriott Pavilion, Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park.

Summer seems the slow season for this Poughkeepsie-based troupe, which recently moved most of its performances from a black-box theater in a strip mall on Route 9 to the shiny new theater at the CIA in Hyde Park where dinner-and-a-show packages reach unusual culinary heights. The only production on Half Moonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s immediate docket is its Ten-Minute Play Festival on June 12 and 13. All You Can Eat features ten specially commissioned short sketches, all set in Hudson Valley eateries.

Michael Schiralli directs.

Tickets (without dinner) cost $25. For more information and updates on future productions, visit http://halfmoontheatre.org or call 800-838-3006.

Tangent Theatre, Tivoli.

Summertime is also downtime for the terrific little Tivoli-based Tangent Theatre, which just wrapped up a run of Kenneth Lonerganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lobby Hero in May. On the far horizon is the annual Newvember New Plays Festival, but keep an eye on the website, http://tangent-arts.org, for alerts about pub readings and other new productions in the works. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s at 60 Broadway. 230-7020.

mers and suchlike.

Most exciting for theater fans this summer is the National Theatre of Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s July 18 NT Live simulcast of a new adaptation by Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, of the anonymous medieval allegory Everyman. Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) stars. Tickets cost $22 for adults, $15 for children. For more info about this program and updates about future presentations at TSL at 434 Columbia Street, keep an eye on the TSL website at www.timeandspace.org.

Or call 518-822-8448.

Stageworks Hudson, June 12, Hudson. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theater outside the boxâ&#x20AC;? is the motto of Stageworks Hudson, the only professional Equity theater company in the Columbia County area.

The 2015 fall season lineup has not yet been announced, but on June 12, you can catch a onenight-only one-woman show: Lauren Letellierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s satirical The Fiery Sword of Justice.

Tickets cost $15. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s at 42 Cross Street opposite the Amtrak station. For more info about this performance and announcements of future plays, check out www.stageworkshudson.org. Or call 518-828-7843.

HRC Showcase Theatre, Hudson.

A theater company at 52 Green Street in Hudson dedicated to staged readings of new plays, HRC Showcase is one of several interesting theatrical venues whose forte is not summer stock.

Shows are typically scheduled for spring and fall.

Check back regularly at www.hrc-showcasetheatre.com for future events. Or call 518-852-7244.

Hudson Opera House, July 25-August 15, Hudson.

A multi-arts center housed in the 1855 former Hudson City Hall at 327 Warren Street, currently in the midst of a multi-year restoration project, the Hudson Opera House has a few performance programs lined up for summer 2015, several of them kid-friendly and free of charge: Silly Billy on July 25, a visitation from Arm-of-the-Sea Theater on August 12 and Seanoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Circus Spectacular on August 15. For the grownups, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s jazz at the Hudson Opera House on August 9, spotlighting trumpeter Claudio Roditi; admission only costs $10.

To keep tabs on upcoming shows, call 518-8221438Â or visit www.hudsonoperahouse.org.

Ghent Playhouse, Ghent.

Named best community theater in the Capital Region by Metroland magazine, the Ghent Playhouse on Town Hall Plaza off Route 66 is unique in the area in offering a British-style holiday pantomime each Thanksgiving. But summer is its downtime, with a new season launching each October. Check out the website at www.ghentplayhouse.org for updates. Call 518-392-6264.

Walking the Dog Theater, Ghent.

Time and Space Limited, July 18, TSL Warehouse, Hudson.

Presenting original theater and multimedia productions, independent, documentary and classic movies, music and dance, art exhibitions, special events of all kinds including live simulcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, the National Theatre of London and other special high-definition presentations, TSL is now in a bit of a summer lull. There are great hands-on workshops going on for kids, where they can learn to build park benches, dulci-

Another Ghent-based theatrical project is Walking the Dog Theater, which appears to be on hiatus at present, its most recent production having been A Christmas Carol in December 2014.

When active, the Walking the Dog folks empha-

size avant-garde theater, movement, improv and arts-in-education programs, especially Shakespeare workshops for kids. Keep up with them at www.wtdtheater.org or call 518-610-0909.

Mac-Haydn Theatre, June 4-September 20, Chatham.

Musical theater-in-the-round is the specialty of Chathamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mac-Haydn Theatre at 1925 Route 203, which has a very busy summer lined up. The Drowsy Chaperone runs from June 4 to 7 and 10 to 14, followed by Rent from June 18 to 21 and 24 to 28. You can experience the John Waters weirdness of Hairspray July 2 to 5, 8 to 12 and 15 to 19.

West Side Story also runs three weekends: July 23 to 26, July 29 to August 2 and August 5 to 9. The Producers comes in from August 13 to 16 and 19 to 23, then Thoroughly Modern Millie August 27 to 30 and September 2 to 6. The summer rep season ends with Xanadu September 11 to 13 and 17 to 20.

Besides the mainstage productions, Mac-Haydn offers lots of childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theater: Sleeping Beauty June 26 and 27 and July 3, 4, 10 and 11; Sleepy Hollow July 17, 18, 24, 25, 31 and August 1; and Jack and the Giant. August 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 and 22.

Mainstage tickets go for $14 to $35, childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shows for $10. To order, call the box office at 518392-9292 or visit www.machaydntheatre.com.

The Two of Us Productions, June 5-14, Performing Arts Center at Taconic Hills, Copake.

Roving Actorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Repertory Ensemble and The Two of Us Productions, Inc., based in Copake, produce full-scale musicals, drama and comedies, as well as murder-mystery dinners and theater cruises. Their next production is Jesus Christ Superstar, running June 5 to 7 and 12 to 14. Tickets cost $20 general admission, $14 for seniors and students. For reservations and information, call 518-329-6293Â or visit www.thetwoofusproductions.org.

The Theater Barn, June 26-September 20, New Lebanon.

The Theater Barn on Route 20 is a real summer stock venue with a 32-year track record. The 2015 season kicks off with Moon over Buffalo from June 26 to July 5, succeeded by Agatha Christieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s A Murder Is Announced from July 9 to 26. The musical John & Jen comes in from July 30 to August 9, then The Fantasticks August 13 to 23. Evita will be presented August 27 to September 6, and God of Carnage wraps up the summer from September 11 to 20.

Tickets cost $25 for evening shows, $23 for Sunday matinÊes. To order, call 518-794-8989 or visit www.theaterbarn.com.

Spencertown Academy Arts Center, Spencertown.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not a theater venue, but this arts center on Route 203 presents an ongoing series of concerts, readings, lectures, garden tours, fine arts exhibits and arts-related workshops and classes. Its annual festival of books will mark its tenth anniversary this Labor Day weekend. For more info visit www. spencertownacademy.org. Or call 528-392-3693.

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– September 2015 36 | June Explore Hudson Valley

Searching for summer family fun Erica Chase-Salerno makes every day a vacation

E

very season, I look for new adventures to do with my kids. Here are my recommendations for your own search for family fun this summer.

Here are the five questions I ask myself when planning an outing: What is the Hudson Valley Weather.com forecast for that day?

What is the age range of the kids I have that day (including extended family or friends)?

What unique or educational element do I want to focus on, if any?

How long do I want to drive?

How much money do I want to spend?

In the water To me, summer means outdoors! So I check the weather first, and go from there. If the temperature is warm, all ages, from babes through teens, like to be in the water. We pack up our gear and lunches and head out to any number of local beaches. It all depends on how far I want to drive.

Our family enjoys Kingston Point Beach in Kingston, Sojourner Truth Ulster Landing County Park Beach in Saugerties, Belleayre Beach in Pine Hill; Minnewaska State Park Preserve in Kerhonkson, and Lake Taghkanic State Park in Ancram. My Empire Pass sticker means I forego the parking fee at the last two parks I mentioned.

One fun option is to reserve a space at NorthSouth Lake Campground in Haines Falls, and make a day of it, without necessarily camping overnight. Having your own spot makes for easy bathroom access and a leisurely dinner on the grill before heading back home.

How about a daytrip to some salt water? Visit the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk for a chance to touch real sharks, rays, and jellies. The otters are our family’s favorites! Afterwards, take the five-minute car ride to the family-friendly Calf Pasture Beach for a quick dip in the calm, bayside waters, playground fun, and even dinner before coming home.

Our area’s two local water parks are another good fit for all ages: Zoom Flume in East Durham and Splashdown Beach in Fishkill. Plan ahead, and get your season passes on the Friday after Thanksgiving for Splashdown for the best prices of the year; and by December 30 for Zoom Flume’s best deal. Season passes means a visit can last as long, or as short, as you like, you don’t feel like you have to commit a full day.

That said, the group rates for each park are competitive. And did you know that you can bring your lunch into Zoom Flume within certain areas?

Zoom Flume also has a new zipline ride. Splashdown Beach unveils its own huge new feature this season, Arctic Mammoth!

For a more low-key water feature, remember to visit Bowdoin Park in Poughkeepsie, which is free and has a playful, colorful splash pad next to its playground. This just in! Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Parks at Lazy River in Gardiner and at Woodridge both introduce new water parks this season! Gardiner also has day passes, depending on availability.

Out of the water How about ways to enjoy our rivers without getting in them? Did you know that Forsyth Nature Center offers regular guided kayak outings out of Kingston Point Beach? All are welcome, from rank beginners to experienced paddlers. Or take a Hudson River cruise out of Kingston with historic narrative during the trip, or perhaps a July 10 or August 7 Kids’ Cruise without the history but excellent for all ages, featuring a magician during the boat ride, along with a face paint artist and a DJ for a mini-dance party.

Another memorable experience your family will always remember is the interesting and interactive ride on the Clearwater sloop, which departs from different ports along the river all summer long, including during the June 14 Beacon Strawberry Festival.

All ages can get some terrific river views going

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY WOODSTOCK PLAYHOUSE, KELDER’S FARM, KELLIE MCGUIRE AND HYDE PARK DRIVE-IN, RESPECTIVELY

on the Walkway Over the Hudson, walking, bike riding, jogging or running. Bring extra change for buskers performing on the bridge, as well as for the binocular machines.

Storm King Art Center provides a wonderful way for children to experience art, with its large outdoor structures and expansive grounds. Storm King can mean a great deal of walking, which works well for children and youth but might be challenging with toddlers. The terrain is variable in terms of how well it works with strollers. Go on a Sunday and catch the children and families event, which are included with admission. Or go on a free-admission day on June 25, July 30 or August 27. Go anytime, just go!

Young children love animals. Forsyth Nature Center in Kingston and Trevor Zoo in Millbrook are the perfect size for kids to enjoy. Visitors are welcome to feed the animals at Forsyth. While you’re there, be sure to check out the newly renovated playground.

Hitting the trails is another great way to spend the day. How about creating a themed hike? Look for waterfalls like the very short walk to Awosting Falls Minnewaska State Park. Seek out vernal pools like the ones found in Black Creek Preserve or on the Roosevelt Farm Lane Trail in Hyde Park.

Birdwatch in Esopus Meadows Preserve. Kids eight and up will want to conquer Mohonk’s Lemon Squeeze or Mohonk Preserve’s Bonticou Crag hike in New Paltz.

Maverick Concerts in Woodstock has an 11 a.m.

Saturday morning concert series in its rustic, historic hall. Performances are geared for ages 0 to 15 and are free for kids, only $5 for adults. On June 27, it’s Nexus Percussion; July 4, Elizabeth Littleton; July 18, Bari Koral Family Band; and August 8 with the Miro Quartet.

Looking for music to play in the car? The funloving kindie band Ratboy, Jr. just launched its new album, Hamster Pants.

You’ll work up an appetite while going adventuring. Among the many places I recommend where can you eat that works for the whole group are Frida’s Bakery in Milton and The Bakery in New Paltz. Both have designated play areas for kids to amuse themselves while you eat. Clancy’s Cafe & Creamery in Hyde Park makes its own ice cream, including wine flavors. Sweet Maresa’s baked goods and Lagusta’s Luscious chocolates in New Paltz are both vegan, ethically sourced, and taste out of this world. Lagusta even makes vegan ice cream.

Got any Minecrafters in your crew? Consider a trip to Herkimer Diamond Mines in Herkimer for some real-life pickax action. I recommend bringing your own eye protection, gloves, and hammers. It will be hot, so little ones will need tending to indoors while their older siblings are out mining. You can stay overnight at the nearby campground and make a mini-vacation out of it, or get an early start and do the whole excursion in a day.

Wondering how you and your kids can make a difference in the community this summer? For

June â&#x20AC;&#x201C; September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley

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actually catch one with your bare hands. What a challenge! Our neighborhood gets a huge shimmery burst around July 4 every year, so keep watch to see if your neighborhood gets it earlier or later. All ages are enchanted by fireflies, and best bets are open fields, and trails near streams.

How about music, you ask? Free evening lawn concerts such as Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park and Mills Mansion in Staatsburg abound in our area. Pack up a basket of food and a picnic blanket, and give your family of all ages the gift of live music.

Rainy

Who needs culture?

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ZOOM FLUME

N

eed a bit more than culture and food to satiate the soul these coming months?

All summer long thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s some of the best dressage, as well as horses, at HITS in Saugerties, as great a resource for the equine set as Saratoga come August. For things a bit louder, check out the Accord and New Lebanon speedways for everything from dirt track racing to school-bus demoli-

tions.

Sports, you say? Many make their way regularly to see the Hudson Valley Renegades at Dutchess Stadium, near Beacon, and Tri Valley Cats, outside Troy, play other minor league teams from Brooklyn, Staten Island, Vermont and Massachusetts all summer long. Or take field trips up to Cooperstown.

There are canoe and kayak rentals along the Hudson in several places, as well as on a growing number of rental sites on the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vast reservoir system. Fishing, we hear, is world-class throughout the Catskills, as well as on the river.

Finally, for real fun, how about golf... and its runtling sibling, putt putt? The latter offerings range from weird veggie challenges at a farm in Accord to old-style historic sites in rotting concrete up in East Durham. Plus newer revels.

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget water parks, batting cages and bounce-house extravaganzas. You just have to get out there and find the stuff!

ages eight and up, volunteer to help prepare a meal at The Lunchbox soup kitchen in Poughkeepsie. Even younger children can help to care for and play with the kitties at Mid-Hudson Animal Aid in Beacon. Staying at any hotels this summer? Collect all of the personal care items you can, and donate them to Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Place in Kingston when you return.

Engage the sports fans in your family, as well as folks who are new to baseball, by seeing a Hudson Valley Renegades baseball game. The team plays at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls all summer long, with evening and weekend games.

Every seat is a good one, and the range of ticket prices fits any budget. Some of the themed nights highlight children or Boy and Girl Scouts with special giveaways and games, and kids can run the bases after the Sunday games. Kids six and up seem to do best during the games, but with the bounce houses available for jumping during the game any age will have a good time. Our family tries to hit the fireworks nights when we choose our dates. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always a terrific show. Â Â

Evenings Drive-in movies have all but disappeared throughout the United States, yet we have mul )/,-95 )(87 ,#85o7l5R5Sat. 9-4

Rainy weather doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to put a damper on fun. Head to Kenco in Kingston for indoor archery lessons. Practice with your family, or a larger group, and bring out your inner Katniss or Hawkeye! Some friends of mine have a tradition of stopping by Hurley Mountain Inn in Hurley for snacks after Kenco, casual dining and very familyfriendly.

Movies are a safe bet in sour weather, depending on the age range of the kids. Matinees at Rosendale Theatre, New Paltz Cinemas, Hyde Park Cinemas, or Lyceum Cinemas in Red Hook are affordable and give me a parenting break for a couple of hours.

Got early risers? Regal Cinemas at the Poughkeepsie Galleria features $1 family movies at 10 a.m. every Tuesday and Wednesday all summer long.

Give the kids a chance to experience some excellent and manageably sized art galleries when you and your crew want a break from the heat or the rain. Visit Vassar Collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center in Poughkeepsie to see Cezanne, Picasso, Pollock and more. Or take in a variety of shows at The Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz. See more modern work at Dia:Beacon, which has offers a community free day for area residents on July 11.

Happy summering! You can tell me all about your 2015 summer adventures by writing me at Kidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Almanac at Ulster Publlishing,

tiple sites here in the Hudson Valley. Drive-ins are perfect for new parents whose babies are asleep in the car seat, giving you a chance to snuggle and watch a movie! As the kids get older, they get into the excitement of sitting in the back of the car, or hanging out in camp chairs sharing the popcorn.

Hudson Valley picks are Hyde Park Drive-In Theatre in Hyde Park, Overlook Drive-In Theatre in Poughkeepsie, Amenia Drive-In Theatre in Amenia, and The Hi-Way Drive-In Theatre in Catskill. I rely on the effectiveness and excellent scent of locally made Wrightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Naturals Bug Stuff for keeping critters at bay.

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just look for fireflies this summer, try to

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Mountain View Studio 20 Mountainview Avenue, Woodstock Thursday, July 9 at 7:30 pm $20 (food & wine included, silent auction)

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– September 2015 38 | June Explore Hudson Valley

PHOTOS FROM WIKICOMMONS

Here comes summer Beware of ticks and teens, poison ivy, rabies and snakes

By Chris Rowley

S

ummertime, and the living is ... well, actually, it’s dangerous. The thought seems at odds with the sunshine, the green leaves, the great outdoors. But, in many ways, the wonderful summer months here in the Hudson Valley are the most dangerous time of the year. Being aware of the dangers remains the best way to avoid them, of course.

These dangers come at us from many different directions on different scales and at different speeds. While we’re enjoying the summer, we need to stay alert. It can make a huge difference.

What’s the biggest threat? A family of very small but very common arachnids, the ticks. On their own ticks are a hazard, and their bite is itchy and uncomfortable. But ticks also carry a variety of really nasty diseases. Most potent of them all are the grey-and-red-bodied Ixodes scapularis ticks.

Deer ticks.

The list of tick-borne diseases is pretty long and scary. They share the most common symptoms, and can be quite difficult for a physician to sort out.

First and foremost, of course, there’s Lyme disease, which you’ve heard about, and comes in eleven slightly different strains of a spirochete bacteria, Borrelia burgdorfii. It appears that some strains are worse than others, but all of them are dangerous and for some people really debilitating, even life-threatening.

The only good thing about Lyme is that it takes a while, even a few hours, for the tick to pass it on to you. This gives you a chance to find the tick and remove it before transmission. If you do get Lyme the most usual symptoms are fever, headaches and a rash, often in the shape of a bull’s-eye target around the bite. However, the rash does not always occur.

Then there’s Anaplasmosis, much rarer, caused

by another bacterium, Anaplasma phagocytophilum. It had other names in the recent past, but it is transmitted by the same black-egged Ixodes ticks. The symptoms include fever, with associated chills, head and muscle aches. These will occur within ten 14 days after the bite.

Both of these bacterial infections can be treated with Doxycycline, a powerful anti-biotic.

In addition, some Ixodes ticks carry Babesia, a parasite in the same family Apicomplexa) as Plasmodium which causes mlaria, and which operates in much the same way, infecting and killing blood cells. Many people do not exhibit symptoms, but those who do usually report fever, with the chills, aches and fatigue that go with it. There can also be an anemia leading to a yellowing of the skin (jaundice) and dark urine. Babesiosis can be life-

hreatening to those with weak immune systems or those who lack a spleen.

Once diagnosed, Babesiosis can be treated with intravenous Clindamycin and oral quinine. Some people have strong reactions to those, so intravenous avoquone and iv azithromycin are suggested instead.

Finally, there’s the rare but terrifying Powassan Fever, caused by a virus in the Flavivirus family (West Nile, yellow fever, etc.). There have been about 60 cases reported in the US over the past decade. Symptoms include fever, weakness, seizures, vomiting, confusion and memory loss.

There is no specific treatment, but severe cases need to be hospitalized. Deaths have occurred.

All of these nasties are part of the life cycle between Ixodes ticks and small- to medium-sized

June – September 2015 Explore Hudson Valley

| 39

your skin. It will last from one to three weeks, except in severe cases.

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rodents, which serve as hosts. Ixodes scapularis, the most common problem tick, feeds on whitefooted mice preferentially. Two other Ixodes ticks that feed on woodchucks and squirrels rarely bite humans. Ixodes Scapularis is the big problem, and the prime transmitter of Lyme disease to humans.

So watch out for ticks. Fortunately this can be done pretty easily. Wear light-colored long pants and white socks. Tuck pants in socks if you’re hiking or walking through tall grass or brush. Check yourself and your companions with regularity.

Pull ticks off and either kill them or throw them into the brush.

Spray shoes and socks with insect repellant, either Deet or Permethrin. After a hike, ramble, picnic or run in the great outdoors, bathe or shower as soon as possible and perform a tick check just in case one got past you. Use a handheld mirror and a full-length mirror if at all possible. Check the kids, and the dog. Look under arms, around ears, in the hair and between the legs.

Also, it is advisable to check clothes and gear.

Everything like hats and pants might want to get a spin in a hot dryer. Ticks are most vulnerable to heat and drying out. In fact, ticks are most likely to be found in damp, shady areas.

F

ollowing the danger of ticks, comes the danger of teenagers, as in Homo sapiens teenagerensis. Teenagers on their own or even in groups are not particularly dangerous, but when placed behind the wheel of an automobile they become potentially lethal.

The early summer season is the time of maximum peril, as this is when many teenagers have been given their first cars, have taken their first driving tests, and are now on the roads alone for the first time. They have not yet perfected the timing of such things as pulling out into traffic on a busy road, or slowing down and indicating that they’re about to make a quick right turn. They are

also more prone than other drivers to the temptation to text and drive, if only because they’ve been texting since they learned to read and operate a cell phone and regard this art as second only to breathing.

So, on summer roads, drive defensively. Maintain good distances between your vehicle and those ahead of you. When you spot young drivers, keep an eye on them. Be aware that they may do unpredictable things, that they may also be texting while driving. Be prepared to take evasive action.

hose are the most common or usual dangers. The unusual include native animals, in particular animals infected with the rabies virus. The wild animals of the Hudson Valley include the iconic, such as the black bear, and the “invasive” such as the coyote. Most animals, other than deer are rarely seen in daylight, and that includes the most common rabies vectors, raccoons, skunks and foxes. If you see any of these in daylight, avoid them. Any wild animal behaving strangely, approaching you in daylight, seemingly unafraid, is definitely to be avoided.

Move indoors, stay away from them. Rabies is a virus. Infected animals are suffering terribly and don’t know what they’re doing. They may bite, and their bite will require rabies treatments.

Also to be avoided, because of the threat of rabies, are bats. At night be sure to close windows and put up screens. Bats will sometimes enter attics or even houses. In such a case, turn off lights, open windows and leave the room. The bat may leave on its own.

Another unusual summer danger is a nest of the bald-faced hornet. These can become very large, holding several hundred hefty black and white hornets. The rule with hornets is simple. Leave them alone and they’ll leave you alone. They are predators on other insects, combing the forests for caterpillars, beetles and other bugs to feed to their young.

If disturbed, however, they can provide an experience that you will never forget. Children are the most likely to be affected, and a badly stung child should receive medical attention as soon as possible. Hornets are not yellow jackets, although they are wasps. Native to North America, they will not come scavenging at outdoor dinner tables. They don’t eat human foods.

If there is a nest, and it is not in your traffic patterns, then just leave it alone. If hornets or other wasps begin to build a nest around a doorway, or on a porch, then knock it down while the wasps are away. If that fails, reach for anti-wasp spray.

Advise children, especially young male ones, to really, really, really leave that nest alone.

Also included in the unusual dangers are poisonous snakes. We have two kinds here in the Hudson Valley, the northern timber rattlesnake and the copperhead. The rattlesnake is a fairly polite snake, it lets you know when it’s unhappy. As with hornets and other things, it’s best left alone.

This snake is often described as “sluggish” and can indeed seem so. However, it can become anything but sluggish if you make it angry and afraid.

The same rules apply to copperheads, a somewhat smaller venomous snake. They are highly camouflaged and often very hard to see, and will freeze in position if disturbed. Unless you actually touch them or step on them, they will stay put and glide away after you’ve gone. When out walking, watch where you’re stepping, and if you do spot a snake, just leave it alone and no harm will befall you. The one sure way to end up snake-bit and on your way to the hospital is to poke, annoy and frighten either of these species.

N

F

ext up is poison ivy. (Also poison oak and poison sumac). Despite the fact that we know about such perils, and know what they can do, a surprisingly large number of us end up in emergency rooms because we forgot.

If you like to garden, and you know there’s poison ivy around, wear gloves and long pants. If you’ve cut brush and pulled out weeds, which might include poison ivy, do not burn it. Inhalation of smoke from poison ivy can send you to hospital.

It’s also a good idea to equip yourself with a guide to these plants that includes good photographs for identification purposes.

The itchy painful rash is caused by the oil, urushiol, and this coats the leaves, stems, flowers, berries and roots. It’s also still there, even if the plant is dead. Of course, that oil can also be on tools, clothing, or even pet fur. Some people are extremely sensitive to the oil and may require medical attention if swelling of the face, mouth, neck or throat occurs. They may even struggle to breathe. The emergency room at the nearest hospital is the only solution in such cases.

Usually the rash will take a week or more to appear, which can make finding the source problematic, as in the case of a neighbor’s pet. for example.

The rash will only occur where the oil touched

inally, the giant hogweed. This exotic and often enormous plant, Heracleum Mantegazzianum, is a peculiar and so far rare danger. It can grow to impressive size, ten to fifteen feet high, with huge white umbrels of flowers the size of dinner plates. It looks like a gigantic version of Queen Anne’s lace or wild parsnip.

However, the sap contains toxic furocoumarin derivatives and will cause terrible blisters, and if it gets into the eyes blindness. If you run into this plant while out hiking, please take note of the location and inform state police or the Catskill invasive plants organization at The Catskill Center (586-2611). Whatever else you do, do not touch it!

Okay? Let’s go over the drill quickly one more time. Check for ticks every day. Watch out for teenagers behind the wheel. Remember poison ivy. And leave hornets, snakes and wild animals alone.

The story and the prize for ultimate stupidity goes to the gentleman at a picnic a few years ago.

Out of the woods trundled a skunk. Yes, a blackand-white skunk. The gentleman proceeded to “protect” his family by picking up the skunk. The skunk promptly bit him. He dropped the skunk and it ran back into the woods. He wound up receiving a course of rabies injections.

‘Nuff said?

â&#x20AC;&#x201C; September 2015 40 | June Explore Hudson Valley teaching. She writes a weekly health column for Ulster Publishing.

New Paltz-native John Burdick writes at length about music for Almanac Weekly and other outlets. He writes songs and plays guitar with the Sweet Clementines and also performs currently with The Trapps, Pecas, Pelican Movement, and Mark Donato. Â

Our contributors this issue Jennifer Brizzi has lived in the Hudson Valley since 1996, writing about food since 1997, currently from Rhinebeck. She writes for newspapers, magazines and books, and does recipe development, cooking demonstrations and

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Erica Chase-Salerno, an energy healer and founder of HudsonValleyParents.com, writes about area activities for families in the Hudson Valley in her weekly Kidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Almanac column in Ulster Publishingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Almanac Weekly.

Dante DeCecio has been a Woodstock resident for 13 of his 15 years, and has received multiple awards for his poetry and short stories. He has attended the Iowa Young Writerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Studio and the New England Young Writerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Conference.  Staats Fasoldt is an artist. He has an MFA in painting and has taught at The Woodstock School of Art for many years. Rebecca Miller Ffrench, a resident of Phoenicia, has written two cookbooks and is working on a third, Whole Protein Vegetarian (Countryman Press/ Norton), which will be published in March 2016.

Jen Holz raises sheep, chickens, and kids in the Catskills and was a longtime columnist for The Phoenicia Times.

Corinne Mol edited the University of Victoria student newspaper The Martlet, named after a mythical footless bird that never lands. After living in Montreal, Thailand and off the grid in British Columbia, she finally landed in Woodstock when she met her husband.

Annie Nocenti makes films (Disarming Falcons, Woodstock Film Festival 2013) comics (most recently Klarion the Witchboy for DC Comics), taught film in Kingston and Haiti (written about in Goudou Goudou for HiLobrow.com.) She lives by the Esopus Creek. Her work can be found at www.annienocenti.com.

Frances Marion Platt is a journalist, film and theater reviewer, editor, filker, grantswriter, Gunks-lover, mother of one, and an unreconstructed aging hippie. Currently she lives in High Falls and is rooting for Tyrion Lannister to be offered the Iron Throne, then replace the Westerosi monarchy with a parliamentary system of government.

Chris Rowley, a reporter for the Shawangunk Journal, is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels, most recently the Netherworld trilogy, published 2010-11. Paul Smart writes for a living, edits several publications, is father to a nine-year-old and caretaker for a new puppy.

Sparrow is an American poet, activist, musician, and rabble-rouser. The author of several books of poetry and prose, he is a frequent contributor to a number of publications. He is known for having started the Slow Read Movement.

This issueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s covers are by the Hudson Valley artist Leslie Bender, who works in many media and styles, always finding new riches to bring to her art. Her paintings, prints and other art work can be seen at Albert Shahinian Gallery and www.lesliebender.com.

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