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Explore Hudson Valley APRIL - JUNE 2017 • ULSTER PUBLISHING • WWW.HUDSONVALLEYONE.COM

Where to Guide

A river has two sides A season full of destinations, events, traditions, histories and musings

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• April - June, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

Our river has two sides, and it’s very wide

By Paul Smart

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tanding by the banks of the Hudson near the site of an old ice house (which could be most anywhere on either shoreline), my kid’s jumping rock to rock with the dog. A duck of some sort skirts the still water headed north (must be that moment between the incoming and outgoing tides). I can see houses, a small city in the distance. There’s a hint of distant hills, and even more distant mountains.

A train scurries north not a half hour since the last one did the same. Things must have gotten blocked up down in the city, I think.

Behind me is a small hillside, fields to the north and forest to the south. I’m facing east, of course, towards Columbia and Dutchess counties, and Connecticut and Massachusetts, along with the rest of New England. Do I feel the Catskill Mountains, Pennsylvania and Ohio and the rest of the Midwest and West behind me? Not really, only if I start to put my mind to it.

A river has two sides. This idea came up at a recent meeting. The concept enveloped much of our region’s history, as well as that of our modern politics.

Son Milo tries skipping rocks. After a while he settles for plunking the biggest he can the farthest he can. The dog is sniffing for whatever inhabits both sides of the water flowing before us. I think back to the time I watched a friend join a huge crowd down in Newburgh, all swimming east towards Beacon for some benefit. I think of smaller rivers I’ve swum across — the Thames (far upstream from London), the Connecticut (New Hampshire to Vermont), and the James near my boyhood home in Virginia — as well as those I’ve dreamed of at least trying to swim in, from the Seine and the Tiber to the mighty Mississippi.

Some things start to make sense when you look at a wide river. Without the

PHOTO COURTESY OF NY PARKS DEPARTMENT

The view from Clermont in Columbia County, which looks west beyond the Hudson River to the lands the Livingston family owned in the Catskills, captures much of what still draws people to the Hudson Valley.

April - June, 2017 • 3

Explore Hudson Valley

bridge I see from here, it would be almost impossible for me to get from here to there without serious help. Which means I could go a lifetime without knowing what I can see from here. I resolve to feel more kindly disposed to the toll-swallowing New York State Bridge Authority.

Remember Saul Steinberg’s picture of the world as seen from Manhattan? Ever heard Parisians battle over the merits of the right bank versus the allures of the

Table of contents Introduction Our river has two sides, and it s very wide by Paul Smart

2

Hanging out on the Hudson On or by the river is the place to be

by Lynn Woods

4

East of Eden A beginners’ guide to the east side of the Hudson River by Sparrow 10

left? Or thought deeply about how the Potomac must have seemed during the Civil War? I’ve heard people from the west of the Hudson, where the valley yields to the Catskills or Shawangunks and eventually the Appalachians, talk about the eastern shore as “the moneyed side.” On the east side, the gentler landscape rises through the Berkshires into a land of old shires and endless stone walls still being maintained.

Suffice it to say that we have two sides to this river. They’re quite different to us who live here, but as a French person I once escorted around observed, they’re all quite the same to someone from elsewhere.

Within these pages, we take a look at what some from each side have seen and actually come to appreciate after crossing our various bridges. We’ll investigate what our town and city folk think is cool out in the rural stretches, along with our country mouse’s view of some interesting

brand-new urban scenes.

Remember the first crack of the bat on the opening day of the fishing season?

Looking forward to running local trails with hundreds of others? ‘Tis that season.

Bittersweet to some, yes, but also a moment to engage.

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Antiques

The east’s view Route 9, between Roosevelt and Vanderbilt Mansions

The draw of the left bank of the Hudson River by Jennifer Brizzi 14

(845) 229-6600

Village life Sometimes you need more than the countryside can offer

by Lissa Harris

16

Family outings Fun things for kids and grownups

by Roxanne Ferber

Thrift Shop Downstairs: 20

Spring sports Getting outdoor exercise

by Chris Rowley

HIDDEN TREASURES

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Tuneful colonization There’s a lot of music around this spring by John Burdick

32

Cerebral springtime Area campuses offer lots to do

by Paul Smart

36

Art, grit and history Newburgh, a quirky city on the upswing

by Violet Snow 40

River dharma For some looking west from Peekskill, the Hudson was enough

by Rich Corozine 46

To Buy... To Sell or just for the fun of it Be a part of this Hudson Valley Tradition

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4

• April - June, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

Hanging out on the Hudson On or by the river is the place to be

By Lynn Woods early every day, I walk my dog at Kingston Point. I park next to an abandoned brick industrial building and walk along the tracks past a fenced-in area of the former Central Hudson gas field where earth-moving equipment and workers in hardhats are doing some kind of cleanup. The tracks, built on a spur of land in the 19th century to convey disembarking passengers by train from the enormous steamships that once docked there to resort hotels in the Catskills, pass through a swampy former lagoon now full of chortling red-winged blackbirds. There’s a magnificent southward view of the Hudson River.

Every day, the river is different. On a sunny morning, its broad pale-grey surface dazzles with a million points of light.

On a windless, overcast day, it’s a silver

N

WIKICOMMONS

Looking up the Hudson River from the Bear Mountain Bridge just south of West Point, one gets a sense of the river’s great width, which has helped shape the great differences between its two sides. We’ve found innovative ways to bridge our differences.

Antiques

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April - June, 2017 • 5

Explore Hudson Valley

mirror, vanishing into mist, otherworldly.

On a sunny, breezy afternoon, the river is deep blue, whipped into peaks laced with white froth, a flock of lesser scaup docks riding the waves. In a gale, the surface is purple-brown, broken up like clods in a freshly plowed field.

Often an eagle soars overhead, flapping its powerful, slab-like wings before landing on a rock along a jetty. Soon the herons will return to fish in the shallows by the jetty. The stilt-legged birds, slender as fashion models, stand motionless before taking a few steps to stab a fish with their long beaks. Soon the swallows will also be arriving, swooping low over the water like acrobats, snatching insects out of the air.

Daily, the shoreline shifts depending on whether the tide is high or low. The water on the Kingston side of the tracks is backed by a rocky woods, perhaps the one feature not tampered with by humans.

Beneath the clear water, brimming so high the water edges onto the grass, soaking your shoes, the dark bones of a sunken boat are visible.

I used to look with envy out on the tiny white sails that scooted across the river on a warm day in June or the windsurfers

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who daringly raced over the waves on a terrifically windy March afternoon. Earthbound, I could only experience the wild domain of water and wind vicariously. To be sure, sailing on the river is a thrill (more about how you can do that in a minute).

The more time I’ve spent ambling along the shore, the more I’m happy to do nothing at all except walk, observe, and exult in the wide-open space of the river. Every day offers up its treasure, depending on the season. A snapping turtle digging a nest in the gravel and soft loam along the tracks in June, baby squirrels peering out of the gnarled holes of the battered, ancient black willow in November, a pale-orange crab shell upended among the black rocks at low tide in August, the blackened nubs, spaced regularly along

a straight line, marking the location of the old pier.

Such aimless rambling is a luxury in today’s world, where so much coastal real estate is private, expensive, or spoiled by a roaring highway. While the opposite shore of the Hudson is bordered by the Amtrak tracks — watching the tiny distant silver caterpillar, its horn disproportionately loud, chug into view is yet another pleasure of my walks — access to the river is unimpeded in most of Ulster County. Thanks to the numerous parks and preserves, many of them established and operated by Scenic Hudson, much of the shore, which a century years ago was treeless and lined with brick and cement works, can be accessed by the public for free. In May the bird-watching is prime;

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Round Lake Antiques Festival Sat, June 24, 2017 - 8am-6pm Sun, June 25, 2017 - 9am-5pm HINE RAIN OR SISSION FREE ADM

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Village Greens & Parks of Round Lake, NY (½ mile east of the Adirondack Northway, exit 11)

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Antique Fair

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and Flea Market

May 6th & 7th, 2017 August 5th & 6th, 2017

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Ph. 518-331-5004

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• April - June, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

a tour by one of the resident naturalists, which are offered through the John Burroughs Natural History Society ( jbnhs. org) enables you to identify the avian visitors and breeders in the area. (A walk at the Esopus Creek Conservancy, in Saugerties, to spot migrating warblers and other songbirds is scheduled on April 30.)

Traveling south from Saugerties, there’s Falling Water Preserve, with the trail passes a waterfall as it snakes down the wooded slope to the rock-lined shore.

There’s Ulster Landing, which has a similar terrain, plus recreational fields down by the river. There’s Esopus Meadows, four miles south of Kingston, where three intersecting trails pass a creek and several

vernal pools which in early spring resonate with the deafening quacks of wood frogs.

And finally there’s Black Creek Preserve, in which a small wooden suspension bridge crosses one of the few Hudson River tributaries that was never interrupted by industrialization: a section of the forest has been fenced in as an experiment in forest recovery to prevent forage by deer). or the best views in a romantic landscape setting, head across the river. At Poets Walk, a Scenic Hudson preserve on River Road just south of Bard College, you walk over a series of undulating fields, which climax in an Alpine pavilion crafted of rustic branch-

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es. Before you lies a panorama of the river and Catskill Mountains. The estates of Clermont, Montgomery Place (now owned by Bard College) and Wilderstein also offer stunningly beautiful views from high bluffs framed by ancient trees.

Just south of Hudson, Frederic Church’s Persian-style castle at Olana looks straight down the river from a steep wooded hill.

The grounds include Church’s farm, which is being restored; the tour of the house, which is still furnished with the landscape painter’s possessions, is comprehensive and fascinating.

In Hyde Park, just north of Poughkeepsie, the Vanderbilt Mansion and the FDR Home, Presidential Library and Museum, in similarly spectacular riverside settings, provide insights into the Gilded Age and the Hudson Valley native who successfully shepherded the country through the Great Depression and World War II,.

My favorite estate river walk is the grounds of the Mills Mansion at Norrie Point State Park. The 1890s Beaux-Arts mansion is overly large and institutionallooking, but the winding road to the river, shaded by an allee of enormous trees, takes you back to another century. You can hike on the wooded paths for miles, catching the breezes along an unspoiled stretch of river. It feels remote from civilization, and indeed the state leases out ten rustic cabins tucked into the woods and with a view, along with 44 camping sites on the southern end of the park (to book, visit reserveamerica.com).

Walkway Over the Hudson, an expanse of pavement laid over a former railroad bridge in Poughkeepsie, stretches for more than a mile over the river, enabling you to view the Hudson from 200 feet in the air. The bridge, ideal for bicyclists and roller-bladers, is linked to rail-trails

Everything Ulster Publishing in one place.

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April - June, 2017 • 7

Explore Hudson Valley

in Dutchess and Ulster counties. he boat tours start up in May. The 300-passenger Rip Van Winkle departs the dock in Kingston for two hourlong sightseeing cruises (hudsonrivercruises.com; evening dinner cruises are also available). Similar tours are available in Hudson (hudsoncruises.com; that company also offers mystery murder, sunset, Athens Lighthouse tours, and in Newburgh (prideof the hudson.com).

That boat cruises the most scenic stretch of the river, including Storm King and Cold Spring. From Beacon, you can hop aboard the Estuary Steward for a walking tour of Bannerman’s Castle, the mysterious ruin that formerly served as a storage for armaments (bannermancastle.org).

The Clearwater, the famous replica of a Hudson River sloop that was commissioned by Pete Seeger in the 1960s, has ever since has been a powerful symbol of environmental activism. It offers tours to the public from various ports as it makes its way up and down the river. The experience of cruising the river on the creaky wooden sloop with just the sound of the

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• April - June, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

wind in your ears is not to be missed.

Passengers help raise the sail as a young crew member shouts out commands, and mid-sail sea chanties are sung to the accompaniment of a banjo or guitar. For a schedule, visit Clearwater.org.

After a one-year hiatus, the popular Clearwater Festival returns this year on June 18 at the waterfront park at Crotonon-Hudson. The all-day event will feature singer-songwriters Lucy Kaplansky, Richard Shindell and Dar Williams, reviving their folk-pop collaboration Cry CryCry after 19 years. Suitcase Junket, a one-man band playing improvised instruments, will also be in the lineup of dozens of bands.

You can charter your own 36-foot Catalina sailboat, complete with catered meal, from captain Robert Henderson. Groups

are limited to six and the boat departs out of Kingston, Saugerties, or Rhinecliff (blackswansailing.com). Captain Dan Feldman also charters a 28-foot trimaran to small groups from Kingston and offers lessons on a racing boat (hudsonsailing. com). Chartered cruises of the Hudson are also available on a 40-foot Beneteau (ospreymarine.com) Ophira Sailing (ophirasailing.com), based in Connelly on the Rondout Creek across from Kingston.

Ophira charters sailboats, too, and offers a youth and adult sailing school as well as private lessons.

Canoes and single or tandem kayaks can be rented on Rondout Creek in Kingston (takeadayaway.net), and from the Saugerties Marina (saugertiesmarina.com).

The City of Kingston offers guided kayak

tours of the Hudson (forsythnaturecenter. org.) I Paddle New York in Saugerties offers kayak tours and rents out kayak and paddleboards for explorations of the Esopus Creek and Hudson River (ipaddlenewyork.com). Kayaking trips are available in Beacon (mountaintopsonline.com), and Cornwall-on-Hudson (mountainvalleyguides.com. In Athens, across the river from Hudson, you can rent stand-up paddleboards as well as kayaks and beach cruiser bicycles (paddleheadboards.com). hile most Hudson Valley commercial waterfronts were torn down in urban-renewal projects in the 1960s, the advent of an upscale flea

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Where to Guide

Camps

April - June, 2017 An Ulster Publishing publication

S

ummer camp is the source of fond memories for millions of Americans who hiked, swam and sang Kumbayah around the campfire with other kids who sometimes became lifelong friends. The Hudson Valley has a long history of summer facilities for kids, from the Jewish camp on Yankeetown Pond attended by the Marx brothers to Camp Woodland near Phoenicia, where Pete Seeger initiated city kids into the joys of folk music in the 1940s.

The mountains still furnish camp experiences for kids each summer, offering a wide range of options. Most communities have free daytime recreation programs for the children of residents, providing crafts, swimming and other group activities.

More elaborate, reasonably priced day programs are offered by the week, featuring such choices as arts and crafts, singing, fishing, swimming, basketball, volleyball, archery and ropes courses. Sleepaway camps give kids the ultimate country experience, immersing them in the beauty of the mountains, with plenty of sports, games and entertainment to keep them busy. Some programs also offer horseback riding, rock climbing, canoeing and primitive skills.

Younger children might want to start their camp experience with a day program and proceed to overnight stays by age twelve. Look for a camp that is congruent with your personal philosophy, and make sure to communicate with staff about your child’s needs. Whether you’re looking forward to a break from parenting or apprehensive about letting go of your child for a chunk of the summer, camp is a maturing experience for both parents and kids.

THE TEMPEST ages 7-9.

2-week camp July 5-15 Performances 14-15

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM ages 13-17.

2-week camp July 30-Aug 13 Performances 11,12,13 AS YOU LIKE IT ages 10-13.

2-week camp July 17-30 Performances July 28,29,30

Editorial WRITERS: Jennifer Brizzi, John Burdick, Rich Corozine, Roxanne Ferber, Lissa Harris, Chris Rowley, Paul Smart, Violet Snow, Sparrow, Lynn Woods EDITOR: Paul Smart COVER PHOTO BY Dion Ogust LAYOUT BY Joe Morgan Ulster Publishing PUBLISHER: Geddy Sveikauskas ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: Genia Wickwire DISPLAY ADS: Lynn Coraza, Pam Courselle, Pamela Geskie, Elizabeth Jackson, Ralph Longendyke, Sue Rogers, Linda Saccoman PRODUCTION MANAGER: Joe Morgan PRODUCTION: Diane Congello-Brandes, Josh Gilligan, Rick Holland CLASSIFIED ADS: Amy Murphy, Tobi Watson CIRCULATION: Dominic Labate

Where to Guide is one of four Explore Hudson Valley supplements Ulster Publishing puts out each year.

It is distributed in the company’s four weekly newspapers and separately at select locations, reaching an estimated readership of over 50,000.

Its website is www.hudsonvalleyone.com.

For more info on upcoming special sections, including how to place an ad, call 845-334-8200, fax 845-334-8202 or email: info@ulsterpublishing.com.

Explore Hudson Valley

market in Kingston last summer, operated by Smorgasbord, which also runs popular flea markets in Brooklyn and LA, brought back the shoreline shopping tradition. Amid the striking ruins of the Hutton Brickyards, Smorgasbord will this year operate one weekend a month through October, offering numerous food trucks, craft beer, antiques and vintage clothing. Check out Smorgasbord, located at the end of North Street, on May 20 and 21 and June 17 and 18.

Perhaps the most magical symbols of the

Hudsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s storied past as a transportation, industrial and recreation corridor are its lighthouses. Among the handful that survive, at least one has been brought back to life as a two-bedroom bed-andbreakfast. The Saugerties Lighthouse (saugertieslighthouse.com), a charming brick 1869 domicile, restored and under the management of lighthouse keepers Patrick and Anne Landewe, accommodates overnight visitors. (Bookings should be made far in advance.)

The lighthouse, which is reached by hiking along a lovely wooded trail, sits

April - June, 2017 â&#x20AC;˘ 9

practically in the middle of the river, and on a warm spring day the stone terrace, shaded by a mulberry tree, is the perfect place for a picnic. Cooled by breezes, its stone base slapped by waves, the lighthouse terrace offers the novel experience of being out on the river while your feet are planted firmly on the ground. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s special, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guaranteed to spark a love affair with the river.

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• April - June, 2017

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East of Eden A beginners’ guide to the eastern side of the Hudson River

By Sparrow

C

ome with me on a guided tour of the eastern edge of the Hudson River, traveling northward from the Newburgh-Beacon

Bridge: I recommend the drive from Fishkill to Poughkeepsie on Route 9. You’ll see numerous American stores selling drapes and hamburgers, but pay special attention to the storage units. Never have I beheld such extravagant self-storage architecture! Some structures could be pint-sized colonial apartments. Others resemble brave hillside condos.

On a telephone pole I spotted a handmade sign for the Hazy Rhythm Wonder Band. Amused by their name, I searched them out on the Internet. The music on their website, which appears to be generated by a single person named Brucey Bruce — on child’s xylophone, rustling percussion, and occasional garage guitar

PHOTO BY DION OGUST

Above, the east bank of the Hudson is where one catches regular trains to New York City or points north and west; below, the City of Hudson was once home to whalers who regularly dragged their catches upriver. Here we see the view from Athens in the early 19th century.

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— is tentative and modest. The sound might be called “toy rock.”

Here are some lyrics to “The Wisdom of Candide:” All of my friends exist in my head; I killed the real ones long ago.

Now I sit with myself and as gently as able, I watch my garden grow.

Also notable is the Krishna Grocery (2300 South Road), a fine source of moong dal, cashews, mint chutney and mango pickle, plus hot food like pakoras and eggplant curry. It’s refreshing to find the blue-skinned Hindu god nestled among the Dollar Trees and Walmarts.

The Hudson Valley Renegades, a Class A farm team of the Tampa Bay Rays, play

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at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls (where I’ve also seen Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson). A Renegades ticket is much cheaper than one at Yankee Stadium. The crowd is happier, and the game is more exciting — because minor leaguers make mistakes! And the players are larger. At a major-league stadium, they seem the size of dancing fleas; in Wappingers Falls, they’re as tall as your friends. You can watch the first baseman’s balletic lunges from a distance of nine feet. Big stadiums now are dominated by excruciating video screens pouring out relentless digital hysteria. At Dutchess Stadium, between innings, they hold potato-sack races.

As for Poughkeepsie itself, I am an expert on this city, as my mother-in-law lives there. My primary destination is the Loeb Art Center at Vassar College. Were I their publicist, I’d call it “The Biggest Little Museum in the World.” In a space not much larger than a suburban house is a shrewdly chosen selection of paintings and artifacts stretching from Ancient China to the modern USA. (Oh yes, there’s also a restful sculpture garden.)

The museum owns over 19,000 artworks, and is constantly pulling obscure ones out

of its vaults to present in the Focus Gallery and the Project Gallery, which are tied in with Vassar classes. The last show I saw at the Loeb, “The Art of Devastation: Medals and Posters of the Great War,” which marked the centenary of America’s entry into World War I, had fiendishly appealing enlistment posters. “Take Up the Sword of Justice” (1915) by Bernard Partridge, an English illustrator, shows Justice personified as a young woman in a red cape walking on the waters of the English Channel. In one hand she holds a sheathed sword; the other is rolled into a fist. Justice resembles

a post-pubescent, militant Little Red Riding Hood. A hundred years ago, the talent that now goes into superhero comics was lavished on war posters.

Samuel F. B. Morse had a swanky layout in Poughkeepsie. Known as “Locust Grove,” his 200-acre heavily landscaped estate, with an ice house and a carriage house, is like a Hudson Valley Versailles.

The Italianate mansion, with white stucco exterior, resembles a hospitable Tuscan monastery. Back in 1851, it was logical for a technological pioneer to build a manor on our illustrious river. Nowadays, sadly,

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• April - June, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

we wouldn’t expect Elon Musk to relocate to Poughkeepsie.

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ot far from Locust Grove is South Hills Cinema 8, my favorite movie theatre on earth. Patronized by misers, paupers, unsuccessful sculptors and a few teenagers, it shows secondrun features for only five dollars. I’ve enjoyed every movie I’ve seen there. A five-dollar pricetag, I find, improves a film’s cinematography.

The experience at South Hills can be quite intimate. While I watched Shine a Light, Martin Scorsese’s documentary about the Rolling Stones, only two other people were in the theatre — and they left after 20 minutes!

The employees — of which there are about three — are always jubilant. This is apparently their first job, and there seems to be no manager. To discover how the world will function after an anarchist revolution, visit South Hills Cinema 8.

And on Tuesday, the movies are only two bucks!

Even cheaper is the Walkway Across the Hudson, a former railroad bridge converted into a state historic park in 2009. It’s free. Rising 212 feet above the river and extending for 1.28 miles between Poughkeepsie and Highland, it’s reportedly the longest pedestrian bridge in the

Antiques

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udson Valley furniture embodies the area’s history, from the colonial Dutch period to the heyday of the Catskills hotels to modern times. Furniture prices are still fairly low but may be about to climb, so it’s a good time to buy. Every piece contains a history lesson.

At area antique shops you might find a table with the typical “New York leg,” featuring a smooth, ovoid shape, with narrow rings and rectangular blocks above and below, characteristic of 17th- and 18th-century Dutch woodwork. Bentwood chairs with Art-Nouveau lines were common in Catskills hotels during early the 1900s.

Iron bedsteads, arts-and-crafts bungalow furniture, metal lawn chairs and period fabrics have a nostalgic kick for baby boomers who visited the resorts in the 1960s, when the old furnishings were still in place.

Specialties of the region include products of Woodstock’s Byrdcliffe arts colony, which turned out handcrafted furniture, pottery, textiles, prints, photography and paintings, and established Woodstock’s identity as a haven for free-spirited creative people. Arts and crafts still filter through the region, often ending up at art galleries along with the paintings by Hudson River School artists.

Yard sales are abundant on summer weekends. Sharp-eyed shoppers can find furniture, china, glassware, farm implements and other treasures cleared out of attics and old barns. Even better, with “mid-century” modernism all the rage now, there’s plenty of deals for older things. What a pleasure to give a bit of history a new home!

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world. The view is transformative: like a Hudson River School painting equipped with a wind machine. Normally such a vista is only accessible to disembodied angels and millionaires in private planes, but now it’s for Rastafarians, Hasids, dentists on their day off — and you.

Continuing north, we reach Bard College, that cultural nexus in Annandaleon-Hudson. Recently I’ve been holing up in the Stevenson Library there, paging through magazines I’d never heard of, like International Gallerie, Wagner News, The Scriblerian, The Kingbird [published by the New York State Ornithological Association], The Women’s Review of Books, Lithuanus, Prison Legal News, Quimera, Beijing Review, Revista de Literatura and The Christian Century.

Helene Tieger, an archivist there, was kind enough to show me some books owned by philosopher Hannah Arendt. In

Aristotle and His School by Felix Grayeff, Arendt underlined (in pencil): “One must appreciate what great enthusiasm, even euphoria, filled the Academy in its early

period ….” Gazing at her pencil marks, I felt a tingling in my chest, as though Hannah’s hand had touched me under my shirt.

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• April - June, 2017

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The east’s view...

The draw of the left bank of the Hudson River

By Jennifer Brizzi rom over here — on the east side of the Hudson River — the west side beckons, wild and alluring. Yes, there are miles of trails to walk or bike on the west side, cliffs to scale, and sky thrills from skydiving to sky rides to rappelling mountains. There is a park full of giant sculptures and plenty of theater, dance, music and art.

I was born on the east side, in Millbrook, Dutchess County. When I was a year old we moved to Vermont. Twenty years ago I returned, by chance, and have since made my home in Rhinebeck. I love the diversity and variety of the Queen City just south of me, and I adore the character and beauty of Hudson and Beacon and Cold Spring.

So surely the river’s east side is dear to my heart, where I sprung into the world and where I may well spring out of it someday.

But the west side of the river has an exotic quality that resonates with me.

Its artsyness and funky character (no zombie crawls on this side, alas) are closer to what feels real to me, to the milieu in which I grew up, raised as part of a social circle comprised of the art department of a small New England college where my father taught. The vibe of the west side of the river seems more down-to-earth to me than the cultivated, refined elegance

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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE TOWN OF GERMANTOWN

A view of the Catskills escarpment from the east side of the river provides oft-spectacular sunsets as seen from a more bucolic landscapes. of the east side, home of Roosevelts and Vanderbilts.

The east and west banks of the Hudson beg comparison to Manhattan’s East and West Sides, the former more upscale, the latter more laid back. Or Paris, where the left bank, or rive gauche, has been known historically as the more artistic section, a haven for artists, musicians, intellectuals, teachers and students. The right bank, rive droite, was for the upper crust and big business.

Yes, there is lots of art and culture on

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the east side of the river. Yes, there are lovely places to hike and plenty of friendly people whom I’ve met in my 20 years here.

And surely the west side has its share of wealthy folk and high-class culture. The east side has historically been the lair of wealthy manor lords with huge riverfront mansions. I believe that some of that legacy has endured. or the art-loving, nature-loving, food-loving me, the west side of the river attracts. There are so many places I want to go. Although Hunter Mountain’s Zipline and their Scenic Skyride (like a six-person sofa in the sky, with views of the northern Catskill Mountains, the Berkshires and Vermont’s Green Mountains) and Gardiner’s Skydive the Ranch may be beyond my capabilities, as is rappelling the ‘Gunks, there are so many hiking trails to discover on the west side suitable for an amateur like me. Check out Hunter Mountain’s many festivals, and Kaaterskill Clove, where Thomas Cole painted the untamed Catskills landscape.

Ulster County beckons the outdoor enthusiast, from piney drives to hikes from mellow to

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challenging. Don’t miss the Center for Photography at Woodstock or any of the charming retro-cultural experiences just strolling around the town. This place is a Mecca for culture, from the varied musical offerings at the lovely Bearsville Theater or plays from the Bird-on-a-Cliff Theatre Company, the Maverick Concerts and much more.

Close by is Saugerties, probably the number-one place I’d live if I didn’t live in Rhinebeck. Not only does it have a cool small-town vibe that reminds me of where I grew up, but it’s super-cool, boasts some really friendly people and offers unique experiences like the annual Garlic Festival, Opus 40 (built all in bluestone) and the 1869 Saugerties Lighthouse, where you can sleep over for $250 a night (find more lighthouses in Kingston and Athens).

Kingston is hip and trending, and as the state’s first capitol historically interesting as well. It draws New Yorkers with its Ulster Performing Arts Center, galleries and music venues, not to mention the foodie paradise, Smorgasburg, at the Hutton Brickyards.

Also in Ulster County, New Paltz is pure college town, with lots of character and art, and where I love to go for flotation and seafood (Mountain Float Spa and Gadaleto’s respectively). Check out the Playback Theater, historic Huguenot Street, Water Street Market, the rail-trails and anything at SUNY New Paltz. urther south, in Orange County, you’ll find Newburgh, an urban enclave at the cusp of a renaissance.

There’s a lot going on, from a vital waterfront eating-drinking scene to theater and arts and a new appeal to NYC exurbanites.

Orange County was reputedly the first wineproducing area in the U.S., with the oldest winery in the country, Brotherhood, as well

as many other wineries, breweries, distilleries and cideries. The county includes the famous black-dirt region, which puts forth hearty and delicious produce. One of the most appealing parts of Orange is Storm King Sculpture Park. As a fan of giant modern sculptures, I love Beacon’s Dia on my side of the river, but Storm King’s open-air setting is more elemental somehow.

Further south is Rockland, just miles from New York City yet part of the Hudson Valley. I have yet to explore the county fully, but have spent some time in Haverstraw, a fun and funky town with the ethnic mix of a NYC neighborhood, a strong arts community, and some excellent eats. There is a strong community theater presence and lots of filming going on in the county’s cute small towns. Bear Mountain State Park offers lots of outdoor recreational activities and is a

very popular draw.

I want to spend more time on the west side of the Hudson. I want to go to u-pick farms, to visit museums and historic sites and stone houses. I do not want to zipline at Hunter Mountain or rappel the ’Gunks or Skydive the Ranch, but maybe you are braver than I. But I will be happy to stroll around Warwick or New Paltz or Hurley or Catskill, to taste and explore.

It’s all so accessible, with right and left bank connected via several bridges of varying heights. The spectacularly majestic Walkway over the Hudson practically pulls you, on foot or bike, from one side to the other with its spectacular views, as does the exhilaratingly high Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge I cross every few days. After 20 years I still marvel at how beautiful the Catskill Mountains are and how lucky I am to live in the Hudson Valley.

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Village life Sometimes you need more than the countryside can offer

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By Lissa Harris

ost challenging of all, I now spend a lot more time an is by talking to people. It’s nature a rare to go more than a social anblock in a small town imal,” Arwithout running into istotle wrote some 2300 someone with whom years ago. “Whosoever is you’re obliged to stop delighted in solitude is eiand chat. Some days, ther a wild beast or a god.” it’s charming. Other Though I am reasonably days, it’d be nice to sure Aristotle never visited make it through the New Kingston (pop. 161), produce aisle without the philosopher’s adage is running a gauntlet of as true on John Tuttle Road “How’s your mom doas it was in the old Lyceum PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTOGRAPH ing?” over by the letof Athens. There’s someMargaretville, in Delaware County, is a draw for many in the tuce mister. thing about life outside of central Catskills. Our author found it a hospitable change from The enforced small civilization that encour- the rigors of a more rural life. talk that comes with ages beasthood, or at least life in the sticks, we found that we enjoy small-town life is a conundrum. There the perpetual wearing of pajama pants. worldly comforts like regular street ploware ways to cope with it. For instance, One tends to go to seed. Much is made in ing and electricity that stays on. We are you can avoid it the way my wife does: these rural parts of the rough virtues of now delighted to be village people. by being practically legally blind. Julia country solitude, but even legendary local The thrill of being able to walk to things was recently dismayed to discover, upon hermit John Burroughs wrote that it was still hasn’t quite worn off, and I like makgetting a more effective prescription for nice to have a friend around now and then. ing my daily rounds: supermarket, post glasses, that people around here generally A few years ago, my wife and I jumped at office, Pokemon gym. (Team Mystic. wave hello to pedestrians from their cars. the chance to ditch a rented New KingsFight me.) It’s nice to be a regular at The “They’ve been waving at me all along,” ton country farmhouse for a demented Cheese Barrel, where everybody knows my she groaned. old Victorian of our own in the middle favorite sandwich, and at Picnic!, where Social anxieties notwithstanding, I think of Margaretville. Having made a go of the lunchtime gossip is as indispensable I’ve found my niche. During the last big as the fresh-baked bagels. Best of all, my snowstorm, our quiet street took on the kid — no longer the only child in a halfatmosphere of a block party, as neighbors mile radius — now patrols our block with who hadn’t talked to each other in weeks INC. a feral pack of fellow eight- and nine-yearemerged from their houses at once to do olds who clatter by regularly with bicycles battle with three-foot snowdrifts. The and sticks and snowball fights. one guy with the functioning snowblower ELECTRICAL CONTRACTING There are downsides to village life, of (thanks, Ed!) made the rounds to help the LICENSED • INSURED course. When we moved to Margaretrest of us with our driveways. ville, we traded a barn full of chickens When the weather gets warmer, we’ll and rambling privileges to an adjacent trade perennials and drink wine on each clover meadow for a gently decaying other’s porches. It’s a good life. The rural sidewalk and a picture-window view of countryside is beautiful, but unlike most ROBERT HAMM my neighbor’s impressive collection of of my weekender friends I’m not all that 24 MOHONK ROAD construction ladders.

The town firehouse tempted by fifty acres and a pond.

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hills. I know where to find wild ramps, forgotten bluestone quarries, and half a dozen swimming holes unmarked on any map. But in my free time I’m just as likely to head for more civilized local playgrounds as I am to take to the woods.

A favorite weekend destination is Woodstock — the town I grew up in, and a place that still holds potent memories. It’s not the same, of course. Woodstock was already undergoing its transformation from bohemian enclave to upscale tourist playground when I was a kid in the 1980s;

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these days, it’s more posh than ever. But it’s still magical to watch my daughter enjoy the same local pleasures I did as a kid: gleefully swinging a bubble wand outside of Tinker Toys, or running like a colt across Andy Lee Field as the afternoon sun paints long shadows on the lawn of

the Woodstock Cemetery.

Lunch at Misty’s On The Green may be a distant memory, but their downright Proustian strawberry mint lemonade has been reincarnated at Yum Yum Noodle Bar. Tinker Street Cinema is now Upstate Films, but the real-butter popcorn and

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the indie movie-house vibe are the same.

While my Brooklyn friends talk wistfully of being able to afford a place to escape the city’s noise and haste — perhaps a tiny house deep in the woods, tricked out with sleek little European appliances — my own weekender dreams are decidedly more civilized. One day I’d love to have a cozy pied-a-terre in (don’t laugh) Kingston.

Somewhere within stumbling distance of Uptown, for weekends spent on live music and tacos al pastor and Sunday papers over a latte at Dominick’s. Or maybe, for the cost of a parking spot in Manhattan, a piece of some charming brick rowhouse down near the waterfront, where I could finally learn to sail, or just wander along the bank of the Rondout on warm summer evenings.

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shuttered the news operation earlier this year, a local casualty of the woes plaguing news media around the world. I’m sorry it wasn’t a wild success, but I have no regrets about dedicating so much of my professional life to telling local stories. Writing for and about this place has brought it home to me that the Catskills has always been much more than a natural landscape: it’s a landscape for people.

One of the local stories I’ve learned since moving back here was that my threetimes-great-grandfather, Isaac Birdsall, was the postmaster of New Kingston.

During his tenure, he used to walk the tenmile round trip between New Kingston and Margaretville with a mail bag every day. The route that once took his whole day now takes me fourteen minutes there and back.

These days, all points on the map seem closer together. It’s becoming harder to find a place that feels truly remote. Maybe that’s why visiting urbanites put such a high premium on owning acres of wild land, and on weekend retreats far from the lights of town. They’re looking for something special, something exclusive, something that can’t be found in their

brick-and-concrete neighborhoods.

When my city friends look around the Catskills and Hudson Valley, they see nature: green hills, clear mountain streams, wide open spaces. It’s what they come here for — and who can blame them? But the more time you spend here, the more you also appreciate the human landscape:

the subtle differences between all the little towns, the inscrutable local rivalries that simmer for generations, the eccentric rhythms of rural life.

As for me? I’ve found something rare and precious in my own backyard. Even if that backyard is full of somebody else’s ladders.

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• April - June, 2017

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PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO

Fishing can be boring for some kids, but a lifelong love for others.

Family outings Fun things for kids and grown ups Local adventures

By Roxanne Ferber

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ou learn to judge the change of seasons by how many layers of clothing you need to wear when leaving the house.

We’ve been shedding our wintry gear for the warmer days and sunny skies.

Spring is here. The extended daylight means more time to explore. If you are new to the Hudson Valley, or are just looking for some fresh ideas on where to find fun, here are some family-friendly suggestions.

Take a hike, literally. There is no shortage of hiking trails, bike trails and mountains to climb in every county of the Hudson Valley. There are some really fascinating places waiting to be discovered, like the ice caves in Rosendale or old trestle train bridges along the rail-trail.

If you pack a picnic lunch and ramble to one of the local lighthouses, just be sure to view the tide schedules online before making the trip. High tide means you could be stranded for a few hours.

Take your toddler or little one to new heights of adventure by visiting dif-

ferent playgrounds. Don’t have a playground in your neighborhood? Visit your local elementary school. The equipment there is usually well kept and designed for young kids.

Book your next family outing through your local library. They often have passes for local museums, saving you the cost of admission. A look at the events calendar will find you programs ranging from reading to pets, to magic shows, to hands-on reptile exhibits. During the week you can find regular story times, crafts/art camps and Lego workshops. Don’t stick to just one library — check out the libraries in

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Explore Hudson Valley

surrounding towns, too.

Meet a farmer. Springtime means the local farmers’ markets set up outside again. Every market is different, but often you will find amazing food demos, samples, kids’ art areas and live music.

It’s all free (unless you want to purchase some eats), and your kids can meet the farmers who grow their food.

Milk the season and visit a dairy farm.

Many local farms offer tours and workshops on everyday farm operations. If your family is vegan or vegetarian, plan a trip to the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary in High Falls or the Catskill Animal Sanctuary in Saugerties. Take advantage of their freeadmission days.

Fake it ‘til you make it. If you’re not the outdoorsy type, you can still enjoy a

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Home and garden centers

Y

ou’ve bought your upstate retreat, or perhaps you’ve rented a cottage, and now you have to make it yours. For the yard, you’ll need plants and gardening tools. For the inside, a multitude of touches are required that express your individuality and help you feel at home. Where do you find what your house needs?

The same goes if you’re just visiting, and want to take something really natural back home to your apartment or suburban yard.

Many fruit and vegetable stands carry annual and perennial flowers starting in spring, as well as vegetable starts and herb seedlings. For a wider selection, including shrubs and saplings, look for a plant nursery, where you may also be able to get advice on gardening from the staff. They can recommend a professional landscaper if you want help planning your yard to take advantage of its highlights and overcome any flaws.

Hardware stores are a good source of gardening tools and soil amendments, and the larger ones also have plants for sale, for both outdoors and indoors.

Stop into the housewares department to equip and dress your home, for everything from teakettles to shower curtains, smoke detectors to light fixtures. A few mega-hardware stores provide one-stop shopping that covers both garden and house, including appliances, some furniture, and do-ityourself advice.

Ann Demeulemeester Comme des Garçons Comme des Garçons Homme Plus Comme des Garçons Noir Kei Ninomiya Issey Miyake Bao Bao Issey Miyake Pleats Please Kristin Hanson Linda Farrow Lost & Found

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1 WARREN STREET, HUDSON NY | KASURI.COM | 518-249-4786

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• April - June, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

beautiful view. Take the kids to the Water Street Market in New Paltz. Grab a hot dog or fresh-baked doughnut on your way into the shopping village. Check out local art in the gallery or enjoy sitting next to the water feature. There are complimentary games of chess set up on tabletops.

Lend a hand. Volunteering as a family is a great way to connect with your local community. Spending time helping others feels good and helps kids understand compassion. Ulster will help pair you and your family with community projects in need of help. You can volunteer for something as simple as sorting canned goods at a local food bank or helping serve hot meals on a line at the local soup kitchen.

Low-key fun Keep it cozy. Sometimes the intimacy of staying home helps slow us down a little and gives us the feeling of being connected to others. Invite friends over for an easy

All for one.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MOHONK PRESERVE

The Mohonk Preserve’s annual Rock The Ridge in early May is one of a growing number of events that show off the region’s growing penchant for trail running.

Destinations Hudson Valley One is the website for Almanac Weekly, as well as the entire Ulster Publishing family.

4HEREűYOUűCANűůNDűALLűTHEűCONTENTű we used to post to the Almanac website (go straight to “Browse by paper” in the top navigation bar if that’s all you want to see). In addition, you can also read news and culture from our other papers and special sections, as well as web-only content.

Check it out at: hudsonvalleyone.com

“Trimming the Fleet” Saturday & Sunday, April 29-30 Gently used kayaks, canoes & stand-up paddle boards for sale.

All purchases include a life jacket and paddle.

Same day, same time rentals available.

ON APRIL 30 TRY US FOR 1 FREE HOUR RIDE!

Let’s Have a Great Summer!

1 BRAGG HOLLOW RD • HALCOTTSVILLE • 607 326.4266

pot-luck dinner or pizza. Bring out the board games, bring on the spontaneity.

The memories you make will last a lifetime.

Go jump in a puddle. Most kids don’t even think twice about jumping into a lake-sized puddle. Instead of rushing them past the opportunity, give them permission to jump right in. Let go a little and follow suit. Together you’ll make a big splash. They’ll never forget that time you let them get away with making a mess.

STONECROP GARDENS

huguenotstreet.org

81 Stonecrop Lane Cold Spring, NY A plant enthusiast’s garden…

(845) 265-2000 ~ www.stonecrop.org

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• Conservatory • Enclosed English-style Flower Garden • Woodland Garden • Mediterranean Garden • Alpine Rock Ledge • Systematic Order Beds Gardens open for visitation April - October Monday - Saturday & select Sundays 10am to 5pm ~ Admission $5 Please call or visit our website for the current schedule of events

April - June, 2017 • 23

Josephine Bloodgood

Explore Hudson Valley

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Places to Stay: Resorts, Lodges and Campgrounds.

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To Book Your Stay in Ulster County, visit UlsterCountyAlive.com today.

Hudson Valley/Catskill Regions

24

• April - June, 2017

GOMEZ MILL HOUSE Open Wed – Sun, 10 am – 4 pm April 23 through November 12, 2017

Reservations recommended for guided tours, required for group tours.

Discounts for children and seniors, groups of ten or more and Channel 13 subscribers

11 Mill House Road Marlboro, NY 12542 845.236.3126 Located in New York’s historic Hudson Valley, Gomez Mill House, home to Jewish pioneers, a Revolutionary War patriot, successful farmers, an Arts and Crafts papermaker, and social activists, was founded as a trading post by Colonial Jewish leader Luis Gomez in 1714, and is the oldest standing Jewish dwelling in North America.

Visit the Mill House Museum - Dard Hunter Paper Mill. It represents over 300 years of the American Experience.

gomezmillhouse@gomez.org www.gomez.org

Explore Hudson Valley

Destinations

BEST OF SPAIN & PORTUGAL 11 DAYS: NOVEMBER 1 - 11, 2017 Visiting

Madrid • Salamanca • Lisbon • Seville • Granada • Toledo FOR A BROCHURE AND MORE Hosted by Joan and Walter Schmidt

$2699 PER PERSON FROM NEW YORK

(Air/land tour price is $2049 plus $650 government taxes/airline imposed surcharges)

INCLUDING: Roundtrip Air from New York, $650 govt. taxes/airline surcharges First Class/Select Hotels, Most Meals, Comprehensive Sightseeing and much more!!

INFORMATION CONTACT:

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Ferncliff Forest Rhi b k’ number Rhinebeck’s b one ffree attraction, tt offering an amazing view of Hudson Valley from our Observation Tower.

Enjoy hiking, picnics, camping or just walk your dog in our wonderful 200 acre Forest Preserve.

Open all year 68 Mount Rutsen Rd., Rhinebeck, NY 845-876-3196 for additional information ferncliffforest.org

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OLANA

Week 1: Real and Imagined Eco-Landscapes July 10-14 | 9AM-3PM | Ages 6-13

JOIN US FOR FUN & LATE NIGHT SHOPPING IN RED HOOK VILLAGE. ON THE FIRST FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTH SHOPS STAY OPEN UNTIL 9:00 PM.

Week 2: Paper Art July 17-21 | 9AM-3PM | Ages 6-13 FOR MORE INFORMATION & REGISTRATION WWW.OLANA.ORG

April - June, 2017 • 25

Explore Hudson Valley

Take your art supplies outside. Springtime offers a free art show filled with colorful blooms. Why not spend time outside painting or drawing what you see? Your kids will love the change of scenery, and

you won’t have to worry about the mess.

Don’t forget to look up. The daylight lasts a little longer in the springtime, so letting kids stay out until it is dark enough to see the stars makes you the cool parent.

PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO

Dandelions gone to seed provide delight for children.

Taste A Warm Irish Welcome Awaits You At

The Catskills Provide the Ingredients.

Gastropub • Dining • Events

Eclectic American Cuisine with an Irish Twist!

Featuring Chef Josh Paige

• Happy Hour Mon. - Fri. 3-6pm • Daily Specials • Monthly “Oiche Gaelach” Irish Music Night • 1st Sunday of the month — Irish Breakfast w/pint of Guinness 12 noon - 3 pm

Beer Garden & screened porch open for dining!

Pavilion available for Weddings, Parties, Gatherings and More.

215 Huguenot St., New Paltz

(845) 255-7888 Open Tues. - Sun., Noon - 10 pm

Best Guinness in the Hudson Valley

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Come taste our delicious, homemade ice cream in Woodstock, NY. Our traditional and seasonal ice creams, sorbets and specialty frozen desserts are all homemade and created using fresh, locally-sourced ingredients – including the milk we source from Ronnybrook Farms. s ICE CREAM s CAKES s SUNDAES s TREATS ow nd foll Like a acebook + s u F n us o d show ram anet a free g ta s n I e, g in-stor h purchase! it cookie w

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â&#x20AC;˘ April - June, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

Just spread out a blanket, lie down and look up toward the heavens. If you have a pair of binoculars or a telescope, the experience is even better.

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Do feed the animals. The Forsythe Nature Center in Kingston offers a small-scale zoo where families can enjoy a low-key outing for free. It is stroller- and wheelchairfriendly, so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great for every member of your family. Bring your extra veggies and popcorn to feed the animals. There is no rush to move along. Kids will enjoy taking a book from the tiny library, or leave one behind for others to read. Delight in a picnic lunch before setting the kids free in the Kinderland park right next door.

Catch a show. The local theater scene is rich with talent, but donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t dismiss your local high school. Student productions are often family-friendly and provide a less formal atmosphere for school-aged kids. Ticket prices canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be beat, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a fun way to introduce kids to the magic of live performance.

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April - June, 2017 • 27

Explore Hudson Valley

PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO

The Catskills are filled with rugged, and easier, hiking trails that can take one fully out of cellphone range.

The Hudson Valley is just bustling with an abundance of low-cost and free activities for families. Whether you like to get outside with the kids or to stay closer to

home, there are plenty of ways to enjoy the season. Before the first spring blossoms disappear, check the events calendars at your library, favorite organization and your favorite publications for a full list of fun things to do each month.

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3542 main st. stone ridge, ny 12484

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HEAT & AC (518) 622-3751 OPEN: FRIDAY AT 4PM • SATURDAY & SUNDAY 1PM UNTIL CLOSING

GRAND OPENING WEEKEND - APRIL 14-16 Friday • 7 pm - The Cabaret Duo

Saturday • 6 pm Hors d’Oeuvres followed by a Choice Dinner!

Saturday • 8 pm Music by The Alpine Squeeze

Live Music Entertainment Every Weekend www.crystalbrook.com/mountain-brauhaus

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11AM ’til 6PM

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Voted Best Place to Network & Relax The

Marbletown Inn

Family Dining & Daily Specials Italian American Cuisine

Monday: Chicken Parmesan & Pasta served with soup, salad, and garlic bread — $9.95 Wed: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce served w/ soup or salad and garlic bread — $8.95

Thurs: Wing Night Eat in 50¢ each & to go 60¢ each (min. 12). Hot, Mild, Superhot, BBQ or Honey!

Friday: King Crab Legs served with soup & salad, vegetable, potato & garlic bread — $28.95 Sat. & Sun: Prime Rib Night King Cut — $19.95 • Queen Cut — $17.95

served with soup, salad, starch, & vegetable

Serving N.Y. Style Pizza Catering for all your party needs!

Serving Lunch & Dinner • Closed Tuesday 2842 Rt. 209, Stone Ridge, NY (845) 338-5828

Fine Cigars & Fine People

22 South 7th Street, Hudson, NY 12534 518.828.1505 • ironhorsecigardepot.com Let the Tavern at the Beekman Arms provide both the location and the culinary expertise to make your special day an event to remember.

Lunch 11:30pm to 4pm Dinner 4pm to 9pm (Fri & Sat 10pm) Sunday Brunch 10:30 am to 3:30 pm GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE

Give someone a truly special event. Dine in the oldest inn in America.

The Tavern at the Beekman Arms 845-876-1766 6387 Mill Street Rhinebeck, NY 12572

www.beekmandelamaterinn.com

28

• April - June, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

Spring sports Getting outdoor exercise!

By Chris Rowley he arrival of spring is the seasonal change with the biggest impact on our spirits. After a long winter, with snow coming and going, ice, freezing rain and those days of wintry mix, it usually feels in spring that we’re finally emerging from a bunker, blinking in the light of day. The sunlight is stronger, warmer. The grass is greening up, the sky is blue, and there’s that sense of almost a new world as we return from the cold and the dead of winter.

It’s also the time when ballfields sprout players. There’s the crack of bat on ball. The tennis courts come alive. The little white balls begin to fly far, far down the fairway. Runners who’ve been stuck on roads for months return to the mountain trails. Kayakers can get back in the water. Fishing enthusiasts, who’ve been tying flies and checking gear since

T

Thunder in the Valley POW WOW July 15- 16 Saturday 10-6 Sunday 10-5 Big Indian Park, 8393 Route 28,Big Indian, NY Gates open at 10am • Opening ceremony at Ilam • Grand Entry at 12 noon

Host Drum Spirit of the Mountain Singers Guest Drum to be announced Arena Director Tony Moon Hawk MC John Boles Jim Red Fox Story Teller

This is a Festival of Native American Dancing, Drumming, Storytelling, Crafts

Vendors, demonstrations, children's craft area, art, food and more!

Children's Teepee, dancing with public participation and more.

Bring your blanket or chair and spend the day learning about Native American Culture with us.

Adults $6 • Senior $3 • Children 6-12 $3 Children 5 and under FREE PLEASE NO DRUGS OR ALCOHOL Sponsored by the Big Indian Native American Cultural Center,Inc

Our Mission is to share all cultures!

For more information call 845-254-4238

PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO

Little League is great fun for kids and a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours in the warmth of a spring sun.

Explore Hudson Valley

Christmas, are ready to take on the wily trout once more.

In the Hudson Valley, where winter can be long and hard, spring is especially welcome. A slew of high-school sports are starting their spring seasons: baseball, softball, lacrosse, track and field, tennis, golf. Every family with a varsity or junior varsity player is on constant alert.

Not far behind comes Little League, which will be kicking off in April in towns and villages across the area on a special day

in the lives of so many youngsters. Many will meet the first uniforms in their lives, and then bats, gloves and balls!

There are lots of adults desperate to be out there. While most of us are content with running 5 and 10 Ks, or some tennis, or golf at weekends, others are keen to push their limits and put their hard-won skills to use. The Hudson Valley’s two amateur baseball leagues are gearing up for their seasons. The Hudson Valley Men’s Baseball League (HVMBL) is playing its

Entertainment United Way of Ulster County

U N I T E D WAY O F U L S T E R C O U N T Y P R E S E N T S

DANCING WITH THE STARS Ulster Style!

FRIDAY APRIL 28, 2017

VIP Seating (First 3 Rows) $75 in advance

DOORS OPEN AT 7 P.M. SHOW STARTS AT 7:45 P.M.

General Admission $60 in advance $70 at the door

Diamond Mills Hotel & Tavern 25 South Partition Street Saugerties, NY 12477

Dinner Special at the Tavern 4:30 to 7pm $25 prix fixe meal (not included with event tickets)

DJ Cash Bar Hors D’oeuvres

Please call Diamond Mills Tavern for dinner reservations: (845) 247-0700

Our Ulster Stars!

Kristin Backhaus Gilda Riccardi Our Judges!

Anna & Ken Brett Head Judge Linda Freeman Ginger & Tony Davis Got2Lindy Dance Studios Greg Helsmoortel & Terri Hlavaty Hayes Clement Barbara & John Klassen Cornelia Denvir Alan Roberts & Linda Bradford Peggy Schwartz Mark Smith Shannon Harris Schreibman & Andi Turco Levin Michael Spoto

Order your tickets today! www.UlsterUnitedWay.org or call 845.331.4199

Presenting Sponsor

Our Instructors!

Malik Andrews Lourdes Cruz Ron Fields Jean Keehan Pam Marshall David Salvatierra Carol & Steve Pressman

April - June, 2017 • 29

30

• April - June, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

Entertainment

Play on!

June 8 - September 4

TWELFTH NIGHT | PRIDE AND PREJUDICE TWELF WI THE BOOK OF WILL | THE GENERAL FROM AMERICA LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST

I N T E R N AT I O N A L DA N C E C E N T E R T IVOLI NY

KAATSBAAN

Performing at Boscobel in Garrison, NY

Tickets from $20 | hvshakespeare.org

the Hudson Valley’s cultural park for DANCE 2017 SPRING PERFORMANCES D Ù « ϭϮ Ͳ :çÄ ϭϴ

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KAATSBAAN.ORG photo: Gregory Cary, UpStream® 2015

first games of the season; let’s hear it for the Beekman Sharks! The HVNABA is also out there, as young men play hardball for as long as they can.

The HVMBL also has a midweek softball league, with eleven clubs, including the New York Isotopes, a name spawned by the Simpsons TV show and now incorporated into softball leagues all around the world. There’s room for the slightly less dedicated, too, on baseball fields. If you’re still thinking about getting out that old glove and playing ball, there’s a weekend league for the over 45s. You’re never too old to swing that bat.

If tennis is more your style, there are plenty of opportunities to swing a racquet.

Woodstock Tennis Club and Black Acre Tennis Club are private clubs. Hudson Valley Indoor Tennis also operates in Kingston, where there are public courts at Forsyth Park in Kingston, as well as at Loughran Park, just north of the city.

There are six public courts at Ulster County Community College in Stone Ridge. or exercise potential, tennis is hard to beat, both singles and doubles provide a reasonable work out and will raise your heart rate. Tennis is also a game that can be learned at any age.

If you missed out in your younger years, you can still learn to serve properly, play the net, and even master a good backhand.

Keen golfers have quite a few options in the region. Around Kingston there’s Wiltwyck and Green Acres golf clubs, as well as the Twaalfskill Club. Up the road

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Hudson Valley One is the one-stop shop for content from all Ulster Publishing newspapers, including New Paltz Times, Woodstock Times, Kingston Times , Saugerties Times and Almanac Weekly.

Check it out at hudsonvalleyone.com.

April - June, 2017 • 31

Explore Hudson Valley

in Saugerties is the Lazy Swan Golf and Country Club, and in Woodstock the longrunning Woodstock Club with nine holes amidst spectacular Catskills mountain scenery. The Apple Greens golf course in Highland , a 27-hole championship course built on a former apple orchard by golf enthusiasts, provides a spectacular opportunity for the keen golfer. There are many other golf courses in the area, too.

While golf gets us outside and into the sunshine, it isn’t exactly aerobic exercise.

For that, the spring offers some bicycle racing and lots of running. Keen bicyclists have the Trooper Brinkerhoff Memorial Bicycle Race at Coxsackie-Athens High School April 15. This event has a variety of distance races within it.

The Women’s Woodstock Cycling Grand Prix on May 6 this year features both a 60-mile and a 34-mile event.

For runners, spring brings all kinds of races to train for, and training is as much the point as running. There are the extreme ironman-type events. There are biathlons, triathlons, too, as well as gentle 5ks in historic villages and on carriage roads in the hills. There are enough events in the region for everyone. You could, were you keen enough, be running somewhere for something every weekend from now until mid-November.

On May 1, for instance, there’s the Spring Sprint 5k trail run on Shaupeneak Ridge Preserve in Esopus. A challenging race, this one covers some rugged trails on one of the toughest short courses in the Hudson Valley. Following the race, runners will enjoy a chili lunch provided by Soul Dog of Poughkeepsie. You can register on the Scenic Hudson website.

The May 5 Huguenot Street Nursery School Community Run 5K takes place on Broadhead Street in New Paltz. It offers a simple loop down Huguenot street to Main and onto the Wallkill Valley rail-trail. There’s a free children’s run and prizes. For registration, go to www. huguenotcoop.org/community_run.asp.

The next day, the biggie of the spring running season, Rock the Ridge, rolls onto the Mohonk Preserve. This endurance challenge is also a fundraiser. Cover 5o miles within 24 hours, running and/or walking. Forests, ridges, great views of the surrounding countryside and a lot of running on the well-maintained carriage roads.

Spring is finally here. It’s time to get outdoors.

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2017 Dutchess County Fairgrounds at the

APRIL 30

Autism Walk & Expo of the Hudson Valley (autismwalkhv.org)

MAY 5 - 7 20 - 21 27 - 28

Rhinebeck Antique Car Show & Swap Meet (rhinebeckcarshow.com) Northeast Outdoor Sports Show (NEOutdoorsportsshow.com) Barn Star’s Antiques at Rhinebeck (barnstar.com)

JUNE 2 - 4 9 - 11

Country Living Fair (countrylivingfair.com) Good Guys Rod & Custom Car Show (Good-Guys.com) 24 - 25 Rhinebeck Crafts Festival (artrider.com) Summer Classic Livestock Show (enysummerclassic.com) JUNE 30 - JULY 1 AMCA Antique Motorcycle Show (rhinebecknationalmeet.com) JULY 20 - 22 ENY Jr. Holstein Show 29 Insane Inflatable 5K (insaneinflatable5K.com) AUGUST 22 - 27 SEPTEMBER 9 - 10

30 OCTOBER 7 - 8 21 - 22

172nd Dutchess County Fair (dutchessfair.com) Hudson Valley Wine & Food Festival (hudsonvalleywinefest.com) Potter Bros Ski, Snowboard & Clothing Sale (potterbros.com) The Color Run (thecolorrun.com) Barn Star’s Antiques at Rhinebeck (barnstar.com) NYS Sheep & Wool Family Festival (sheepandwool.com)

ALL EVENTS RAIN OR SHINE Bus Group Tours Welcome For Special Rates, Discounts & more information visit dutchessfair.com or call 845-876-4000

32

â&#x20AC;˘ April - June, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

Tuneful colonization Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lot of music around these coming months

By John Burdick hen Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m asked to describe the perplexing state of the mid-Hudson Valley music scene (and its arts milieu generally), the same metaphor arises again and again in various guises. We are an arts colony. This is, of course, a nod to a storied past of Woodstockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Byrdcliffe and Maverick communities, which countered the dominant industrial culture of the time with an alternative model. That legacy (both of retreat and of unlikely concentration of creative energy in an unpopulous area)

W

has lived on. It exists in the traces of communal, arts-based ideology that remain, from the O+ festival to your neighbor, the famous old sculptor.

The arts-colony analogy is also a euphemistic way of describing a place where artists often outnumber audiences. More makers than takers. More bands than fans. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s us.

If a large resident population of artists despairs of ever having sustainable audiences, viable venues, the critical mass of a â&#x20AC;&#x153;scene,â&#x20AC;? and all the proper arts careers of yore (trumpled now by the dim prospects of current government patronage), what effect does this have on art itself?

Where To Stay

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Bob Dylan, who spent several years living in Woodstock, has returned to the region to rehearse his bands at Poughkeepsieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s restored Bardavon Opera House in recent years. He will be playing a couple of sold-out concerts outdoors on the Kingston waterfront in late June.

Taking our region as a case study, it seems to push the product toward the experimental, the challenging, the uncompromising, the forbidding. It is almost as though our artists and curators exhibit a desperado logic and a contrarian psychology. If no one is going to listen except other artists and their closest circles of patrons and proponents, as an artist Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to do whatever the hell I want, masses be damned, gate be damned. If you chase them away, perhaps they will come.

The defining aesthetic of the region, circa 2017, from the droning halls of Basilica in Hudson to the hubbub in Beacon, is one of extreme difficulty and progressive values. Running up and down the river, from EMPAC to Manitoga, is a hotbed of serious art and inquiry with an especially inflamed and defiant avant-garde. When the seasonal venues, relaxed work schedules, art tourists and recreative spirit roll around, let 2017 be known as the Summer of Grueling Difficulty.

To be fair, The Summer of Grueling Dif-

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ficulty is softened some by the established popular festivals in which our region is uncommonly rich. Here are a few of them: Mountain Jam (June 2 through June 5) is headlined this year by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the most ameliorative

and healing marquee name in that festival’s incredible decade-plus run. That’s followed by the equally huge Hunter Mountain-based A Taste of Country.

The Clearwater Festival (June 17 and 18) is totally back in its inclusive, generation-

Destination: Home!

O

ne of the great things about the Hudson Valley’s bifurcated nature (quartered, if you include its bordering mountain ranges) is that it’s easy to be a tourist in one’s own home. A trip across the river, or off into the mountains, can feel as soul-enriching as a trip to another state or country.

Especially when one considers the wealth of destinations right here. Ever been to Innisfree Gardens outside of Millbrook, an extraordinary example of “cup gardens” that get particularly resplendent this time of year, or the nearby Trevor Zoo at the private Millbook School just east of town? How about New Paltz’s Historic Huguenot Street, which offers exquisite events and exhibits in addition to having the nation’s greatest concentrated collection of stone houses?

The east shore of the Hudson River is filled with the Gilded Age’s great mansions in Staatsburgh (The Mills’) and Hyde Park (Vanderbilts!) along with such historic homes as the Livingston family’s Clermont in Columbia County, Boscobel in Garrison, and the Roosevelts’ Hyde Park home and nearby Valkill. For arts, try Frederick Church’s opulent vista-hugging Olana south of Hudson, as well as his mentor Thomas Cole’s quieter Cedar Grove across the river in Catskill.

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History buffs can get their fill at the New Windsor Cantonment near Newburgh, home to George Washington’s headquarters, or Martin Van Buren’s modest home outside Kinderhook.

Hudson has the state’s impressively inclusive Fireman’s Museum, while Kingston has the Maritime Museum and Saugerties boasts a lighthouse to which one can walk. There’s a very cool children’s museum in Poughkeepsie, and another firemanic museum and the Senate House historic site in Uptown Kingston. Just a few miles further afield await the grand museums of Albany, Saratoga, West Point and Bethel Woods (Valhalla for old hippies!). Don’t forget Stonecrop Gardens in Westchester, Cooperstown, and all that the Berkshires offer. Who needs destinations elsewhere?

spanning way: Lake Street Dive, Richard Thompson, Los Lobos, Josh Ritter, Arlo.

The Hutton Brickyards on the Kingston waterfront will likely become a premier new festival venue in the region, beginning with a modest start of a pair of concerts on June 23 and 24 featuring an obscure artist named Bob Dylan. Brought to us through a collaboration between property owner MWest and Bardavon-UPAC director Chris Silva, the gigs have an undeniable potential.

The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival remains about as stylistically pure and protected as a relevant festival can afford to be (Ricky Skaggs, Mark O’Connor, Jerry Douglas), whereas the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (August 4 through 6) has always celebrated the blurring of the lines.

Meanwhile, Mysteryland will take over Bethel from June 6 through 9 with an astonishing number of young people and laptops, and you will hear absolutely nothing about it. Look up the season’s offerings at The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

As usual, it’s amazing.

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Mountain Jam at Hunter Mountain in Greene County in June kicks off a region-wide summer filled with music offerings all around the Hudson Valley. has bigger fish to fry. Consider Bard, a mecca of rigor. One can only imagine in awe what kind of seriousness Bard SummerScape is a vacation from. The SummerScape press releases run nearly 20 immaculately written and proofread pages, describing a marvel of integrated, multi-disciplinary programming. The “…

And his world” series, this year devoted to the genius and significance of Frederic Chopin, is music, history, interdisciplinary art and an intensive professional

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conference all in one. SummerScape, which seems to run from spring to fall, is what you might call revisionist fun.

Down the road in New Paltz, the centerpiece of the lively seasonal scene remains PianoSummer (July 10 through 28). Now in its 22nd season, Vladimir Feltsman’s summer series celebrates the grueling vetting, training, and final evaluation of a next generation of concert pianists.

State and academic institutions tend to be somewhat canonically bound, but the same cannot be said of the year-round radical programming at Mt. Tremper Arts, or WGXC and Wavefarm’s “The

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icrovenues and series throughout the region celebrate the freefrom and the transgressive. Some of them you can hardly even find with your Google, so you have to really want it: Earwaker in New Paltz, Downtown Earth in Kingston, Elysium Furnace Works in Beacon.

Don’t try and stop me now. The Wassaic Project offers extravagantly rich and high-

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Lodge” festival, two days and nights of uncut experimental weirdness at a German holiday resort (Reidbauer’s) on top of a mountain.

one are the grand Catskills resorts and mountain houses which accommodated up to 300 guests, or the boarding houses scattered around the Hudson Valley that were preyy much the spare rooms in residents’ Victorian homes. However, those popular turn-of-the-century lodgings have been reincarnated in the current era, with many kinds of places for visitors to stay, depending on taste and budget.

Campgrounds are an option for those who want to save money, cook outdoors, and sleep really close to nature. The next step up the price scale is the smattering of motels that offer convenience and basic accommodations. For more luxury, attentive hosts, and possibly a swimming pool, look for a small hotel or bed-andbreakfast.

The old boarding houses have been replaced by home-sharing services such as HomeAway and Airbnb, which enable residents to rent out all or part of their houses for a weekend or longer. To save money, young people band together to stay in a house, families have a homey atmosphere to spread out, and most houses have kitchen facilities.

Many family-oriented resorts from the mid-1900s still exist, usually offering packages that include meals, rooms, and access to swimming, hiking, tennis, recreation halls, entertainment and other amenities, plus the opportunity to socialize with fellow guests. Another kind of resort is the spa, which generally provides exercise, saunas, massage, yoga and other health-oriented activities, all in the healing serenity of the mountains and often in the context of a high-end luxury hotel — not all that different from the old resorts that brought myriads of guests to enjoy the beauty of this region.

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grade multi-arts programming in a town I have never heard of. Kaatsbaan in Tivoli is dedicated to modern dance, which is just another way of saying amazing, cuttingedge, and global music. Basilica Hudson kicks off the warmer months with its 24 hour drone festival in late April. Manitoga in Garrison continues to find novel ways to integrate music, performance, and visual art with its stunning natural environment.

Pauline OIiveros left us in late 2016, but never has her name been so emblematic

Recreation

of the cultural tenor of the valley.

To think that chamber music and mainstream jazz used to be what we called serious and difficult, and to think that I have gotten this far without mentioning such jewels as Maverick Concerts’ internationally known chamber-music series, or the work of our countless chamber-music societies and programs, or the Catskill Jazz Factory’s fruitful association with Bard’s Fisher Center, or the ongoing adenturous booking done by Jazzstock at the Senate

Garage in Kingston.

The hills, these hills, are not merely alive but on fire with the sound of music: caterwauling, droning, dissonant, alien, contentious, taste-challenging music with designs on your reality and your sanity.

So come on people, let’s really struggle.

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Cerebral springtime Area campuses offer lots to do at this time of year

By Paul Smart

R

emember what it was like to be a student at this time of year? Not so much elementary or high school, when escape doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come until June and the true heat of summer, but a college student whose classes are drawing to a close by the end of April with May. There is a fast sprint for finishing papers, paying library fines, and possibly even graduating. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a time when every spring week seems to have a bright klieg light and every warm night contains infinite possibility.

There are enough colleges around here to make such experiences easier to recapture than they are in many parts of the nation, but not so many as to have created the anti-academic rapture thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s taken over

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SUNY New Paltz boasts an active campus this time of year. The new student center connected to The Atrium, seen here, is a great place to visit. elsewhere.

Our main college campuses tend to be welcoming places for their surrounding communities, offering up concert series, art exhibits (and museums), brilliantly au courant lectures and seminars, lots of sports to enjoy with avid hometown crowds, and big commencement days featuring some of the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most articulate speakers.

Look at our college campuses as more than a series of temporary cities on hills.

Taken together, they would add up to one of the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest communities.

Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a great resource, especially this time of year as the weather warms and their various campuses come into their greatest glory.

Sure, autumn often seems more education-oriented, and winter tends to feel

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designed for indoor pleasures of the mind.

Now, however, is the time when colleges are truly ascendant. Having grown up a “fac brat” on various college campuses, I have a bias toward thinking of college campuses as great playgrounds.

SUNY New Paltz, increasingly being seen

as a jewel of our state university system, has a great regional art gallery (the Dorsky Museum), as well as a first-class theater program and fun student center (under the glass next to the multi-story student union building). Upcoming highlights on campus include a production of the

rollicking Shakespearean fun Comedy of Errors Thursdays through Sundays from April 20 through 30, a whole mess of great baseball, lacrosse and other sports events, plenty of recitals by students majoring in music, art shows, and the last of the school year’s evening Humans versus Zombies

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outdoor minigames on May 20 (during graduation weekend). The Benjamin Center think-tank on campus is hosting a conference on women’s suffrage April 21 and 22. Although commencement has been split over three days this year (May 19-21), with no speakers announced as of press time, it’s still fun to be around town that week if you can find parking.

Across the river in Poughkeepsie, Marist is another big university-sized school. Its sports teams tend to play larger competitors with bigger crowds. Campus-wise, Marist keeps growing in number of buildings. The largest events coming up include a kids’ book story fest at the library on April 27, and then commencement on May 20, with Washington Post pundit Eugene Robinson as speaker.

On the east side of Poughkeepsie, Vassar College is home to what may be academia’s greatest small arts collection at the Lehman Loeb Arts Center, which offers

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PHOTO COURTESY OF BARD COLLEGE

College commencements, like this one at Bard College, feature rousing speeches given by an illustrious array of speakers. a year-round series of tours and lectures as well as regular late-night Thursdays.

The campus is a great experience this time of year no matter what’s going on. Its grounds were considered one of the landscape artist Frederick Olmstead’s greatest achievements. The coming months will be chock-full with student and faculty recitals from the school’s great music program, Wednesday night swing dances, an international dance festival featuring local and student companies on April 28, and even a Dog Day on May 3 where college professors will bring out their pets for petting by home-missing students. Plenty of food will be served by all.

Mind-wise, look consider attending an April 17 lecture, “Pushing for Institutional Justice,” from Bishop Carol Joy Gallagher of the Native American Ministry of Montana, alongside a second lecture that same evening on slave youths in the 19th century. On May 11 actor Federico Castellucio of The Sopranos fame will speak about his life, career and art collecting. Other upcoming talks will cover the European Union’s future and gender equality today. On May 28 will come one of academia’s great commencements, with the Posse Foundation’s Deborah Bial

looking to match Ariana Huffington’s, Mary McCarthy’s, Tom Hanks’ or Susan Sontag’s famous words of previous years.

A

t Bard College in Annandale, civil-rights legend and congressman John Lewis will give the commencement speech on May 27. Other upcoming events include a Wednesday evening series of film screenings of works

by Ingmar Bergman and his followers, an April 15 lecture by graphic novel ist Neil Gaiman, an April 22 concert performance of Bela Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin, a May 3 series of events for the nation’s climate seminars, a May 16 choral concert of works by Bach and Vivaldi, and a June 3 concert by the Julliard String Quartet. Also expect loads of exhibits, a new Hessel Museum show, and plenty of student dance and music recitals all over the gorgeous campus.

The Leon Levy Institute of Economics is drawing together some of the nation’s leading economic theorists for discussions of the implications of the Trump administration’s “America First” doctrine over the April 18 and 19 weekend.

They probably won’t be pleased.

There are many other college campuses,

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of course. The castle-like Military Academy at West Point has closed its visitors’ center until the autumn, but they still will be offering tours. Though their commencement speaker hasn’t been named yet (and good luck getting clearance for that), there will be a performance of Annie! at Eisenhower Hall on April 30.

Mount St. Mary’s in Newburgh is becoming a hidden regional treasure, but has finished off most of its public calendar for the year already.

SUNY Ulster in Stone Ridge is running a production of the hit comedy Almost, Maine through next weekend, April 23, has some great sports teams, and is planning both a cultural diversity day and spring fashion show for April 19 as well as an open house on April 29, plus loads of student performances capped by their graduation ceremonies on May 24. SUNY Dutchess, on the northern outskirts of Poughkeepsie, will also be presenting loads of recitals and art shows, plus an April 22 series of dance performances, an April 26 lecture on the recent rise of anti-Semitism by Evan Bernstein, and a May 6 Discover DCC Day. Commencement is on May 18. Finally, at ColumbiaGreene Community College just outside Hudson various art shows and recitals will be augmented by a special 118th Duke Ellington birthday bash by musicianproducer-inventor Malcolm Cecil on his 80th birthday on April 29. Their graduation is May 13.

To think, this is all without expanding one’s campus search northward into the capital district’s many colleges, westward to Oneonta, or south into Westchester.

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Art, grit and history Newburgh, a quirky city on the upswing

By Violet Snow love living in the country, but sometimes I crave a dose of urban life. Wonderful Manhattan can get overwhelming, so I was happy to discover the charms of Newburgh, a small city on the Hudson, halfway between my hometown of Phoenicia and the George Washington Bridge.

Once a prosperous industrial center, Newburgh began a precipitous decline in the 1960s but is now experiencing a revival as artists and writers gravitate toward the city, attracting investment to the historic downtown. A scenic waterfront, Victorian mansions, historic sites, and trendy cafés and restaurants make Newburgh worth a visit.

I was given a tour of the revitalized downtown area by Mindy Fradkin, a.k.a.

Princess Wow, a performance artist and hat designer who moved from Dutchess County across the river about a year ago.

She lives in a condo complex on Water Street overlooking the river for a spectacular view of the muscular mountains on the opposite shore. The slight drawback is the freight trains passing several times

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a day, but, said Fradkin, “You get used to it.” Down the street is a former handbag factory that has been converted into artists’ studios.

In the late 1800s, the city’s location on

the river made it ideal for shipping and industry. According to the Newburgh Historical Society website, “Shipyards, foundries and tanneries dotted the shore, and her industries included the manu-

Art galleries and museums

B

een hearing about how much of today’s art market is being dominated by artists who call the Hudson Valley home, at least part of each year, the same way the Hamptons once birthed and then nurtured Abstract Expressionism?

The trick to catching what’s being made around here is to learn in which towns the galleries congregate.

Woodstock and Hudson have several longstanding arts organizations highlighting both traditional and cutting-edge work. Major campus museums at Bard, Vassar and SUNY New Paltz show top contemporary art. Jack Shainman’s The School in Kinderhook is a world-class venue that draws visitors from all over. Art tourists and art students abound each summer.

Now’s also a great time for regular openings in Rhinebeck and New Paltz, High Falls and Kingston, Beacon and other small towns with burgeoning scenes. Check out local listings to see what’s available, who’s where, and when things are happening. Hudson valley art openings provide great opportunities to meet and greet some of our communities’ most creative people!

Explore Hudson Valley

April - June, 2017 • 41

PHOTOS BY VIOLET SNOW

Left Newburgh Waterfront; right, Mindy Fradkin of LIberty Street. facture of cottons, woolens, silks, paper, felt hats, baking powder, soap, brick, steam boilers, automobiles, coin silver, ice machines, moving-picture screens, and lawn mowers.”

When trucks replaced ships for transport

of goods, industry began to migrate away from the river towns. In the 1970s, Newburgh was scrambling to recover from the shift of shopping to suburban malls and the loss of traffic through the downtown when the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge took

over from the ferry in 1963. (The ferry, resurrected in 2005, now delivers commuters to the Beacon train station on weekdays.)

The town government decided on a course of urban renewal and razed swaths of old mansions from the waterfront. Then the

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PHOTOS BY VIOLET SNOW

Left, record album decor in Wherehouse; right, Grand Street, Newburgh. oil crisis happened, and there was no money to rebuild. Today, public opinion is divided on whether construction should repopulate the long grassy slope that covers several blocks of the western side of Water Street. It affords a splendid view but generates no taxes for the city.

A few blocks inland, Montgomery and Grand streets are still lined with mansions built in the heyday of the 1800s, elegant

buildings with mansard roofs, pillared porches and Victorian bric-a-brac. We take a drive past them, reveling in historic and aesthetic wonder. Investors have been buying and renovating these homes, as updated gathering spaces pop up on nearby Liberty Street.

The Wherehouse is a restaurant hearkening back to the Sixties, with vinyl records covering the walls and early

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rock’n’roll posters in the windows. Over a logo of George Washington in sunglasses, it advertises 24 rotating draft beers, Taco Tuesdays, Sunday brunch and live music.

Washington’s longest-occupied Revolutionary War headquarters is located down the street. It ia open as a museum in the warmer months, so our first president finds his way into various local ventures.

Ms. Fairfax, an upscale Liberty Street restaurant, is named after one of his mistresses.

Ethnic cuisines are also found on the block, including the Korean dishes of

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Seoul Kitchen and the international brunch menu of Caffe Macchiato. Fradkin takes me into Calabash Caribbean Restaurant, where the back room offers a small performance space. Ethnic diversity is one thing I miss in the rural Catskills, so it’s a delight to be greeted warmly by the Jamaican owners, Debbie and Rudy Duffus. A few blocks away on Broadway are two Peruvian restaurants, Villa Inca

and Machu Picchu. roadway is really broad, with a sense of spaciousness that spills out towards the river at the eastern end. At the corner of Liberty Street, in the former Hotel Newburgh, is Safe Harbors of the Hudson, a non-profit housing and arts redevelopment organization.

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B

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PHOTOS BY VIOLET SNOW

Left, Safe Harbors; right, Grand Street Mansions, Newburgh. funds awarded in 2004, the sprawling brick building has been turned into an affordable-housing complex with a performance space in the historic Ritz Theater.

Also in the building is Space Create, a collaborative workspace and art gallery, with artist studios, community rooms, and the office of the Restorative Center, an organization devoted to grass-roots justice. We walk into the gallery’s show of abstract art by Judy Thomas, just as

Gabrielle Burton-Hill is opening a side room for a community circle. The topic of discussion is the proposed reduction of visiting hours at a local prison, a reminder

that Newburgh still has its inequities and a high rate of poverty.

Fradkin admits there are parts of the city she avoids as unsafe. The Restorative

Restaurants

T

he Hudson Valley was once dotted with farms, and many farmers rented rooms out to summer guests who ate just-picked

food cooked by the farm wife. Modern agribusiness has pretty much done away with that lodging option, but a growing number of today’s agriculturalists remain to supply today’s restaurants with fresh ingredients. Spring through fall, vegetables and fruits, free-range eggs, grass-fed beef, wild trout, goat cheese, maple syrup, honey and other locally sourced foods provide the foundation for dishes high in vitality and flavor.

Farm-to-table restaurants specialize in these products, but many other eateries serve them as well. Eating-out options run the gamut from pizzerias and diners to steakhouses, ethnic cuisine, and vegan food. Many restaurants and bars also carry locally produced alcohol — microbrewed beer, artisanal liquor and organic wine.

You can expect to find high-end restaurants where the chef has been lured away from a tony Manhattan joint by the pleasures of mountain air and a less cutthroat environment. In historic Hyde Park, the Culinary Institute of America turns out talented chefs who choose to stay in the area and staff local restaurants.

Before heading out to eat, always check the hours of your target establishment, since many restaurants serve breakfast and lunch but not dinner, or vice versa, and some are closed midweek for part of the year.

Explore Hudson Valley

Center was founded by former public defender Shailly Agnihotri, whose method of facilitated circles has been codified as the Newburgh Model and presented around the world.

A few doors down is 2 Alices Coffee Lounge, which hosts intimate concerts, Thursday trivia nights, and Friday open poetry readings. Near the river end of Broadway stands the classical colonnade of the Karpeles Manuscript Library, a museum housing the world’s largest private holding of important original manuscripts and documents. The archives include the original drafts of the Bill of Rights, Einstein’s formulation of “E=mc2,” Roget’s thesaurus, Webster’s

dictionary, and over a million more treasures.

Other Newburgh highlights include Motorcyclopedia, a museum featuring vintage motorcycles, and Downing Park, a

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35-acre landscape in the middle of the city, designed by the architects of Manhattan’s Central Park.

There is such a wide range of places to explore in this lively Hudson River city!

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• April - June, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

River dharma For some looking west from Peekskill, the Hudson was enough

By Rich Corozine

W

e were swimming in human waste. Hudson River flotsam, that is.

Once upon a time, in a river long ago, local municipalities dumped human waste directly into the water. This was pre-Riverkeeper days, preClearwater days, pre-PCB days. A group of adolescent n’er-do-wells, we mingled uncaring with the effluvia as we swam blithely off of Indian Point — that’s prenuclear power plant Indian Point — trying our best to make it across to the west side of the river to the ghostly array of World War II ships called the mothball fleet.

Sandy Donohue, our strongest swimmer, made it a matter of personal honor to

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The mothball fleet off Jones Point, across from where the Indian Point nuclear plant now is, served for decades as a sort-of insurance policy should the vessels ever be needed again. swim the mile or so across the river from Verplank’s Indian Point at White Beach to Stony Point across the way. He’d hang gleefully — miraculously, even — on one of the 50 or so ships’ huge anchor chains, waving to us as we would watch through a pair of binoculars. It was a thrilling sight:

there was the maniacal square-shaped Irish redhead with the broken front teeth (a previous sledding accident) swinging like a chimp-in-heaven on the vine of the forbidden fleet. As far as I can remember, none of the rest of us ever made it across the river.

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Explore Hudson Valley

But not for trying.

The river was some kind of ribbon of life itself to me then, a magical demarcation between sewage and the stars, the highest and lowest levels I could then imagine. I remember sitting in science class in Drum Hill Junior High School (in Peekskill, the beat-up old river town on the east side of the Hudson), way up top on the third floor, and looking out the window, Siddhartha-like, onto the bend in the river and daydreaming its mystical (and metaphorical) possibilities. As a small child I had loved Tuffy the Tugboat’s trip down a river to the big city and the great ocean.

“Richard, do you know how many chromosomes humans carry?” asked my science teacher, Miss Burchetta, breaking my reverie of travel.

“Huh?” I’m sure I replied, snapped back to the nothingness that was school from the great river of life. The Hudson, even full of shit, was like that then.

We, my friends and me, used to “borrow” rowboats from the old weathered shacks along Annsville Creek (on the outskirts of town) and float out onto the magic water, marveling at the sense of buoyancy that came over us as we smoked some weed, drank some beer, and contemplated the universe that was the west side of creation.

It was only a mile so downriver to Indian Point and the mothball fleet, but other than Sandy we hardly ever ventured over.

We just swam in the river, happy to feel life — and the ever-present human waste — wash over our psyches.

Even my father, age eight in 1918, had felt the magic, hand-paddling east to west on a wood plank across the river with his cousins Tony and Freddy from Beacon to Storm King Mountain.

The Indian Point nuclear plant had been just approved. At the time it didn’t really mean much, just that we couldn’t float down our own special Ganges to White Beach any more. And the fleet, which once held post-World War II grain and then served as a backup in case of some disaster, was dragged away in the 1970s, long after my friends and I had come to our senses and moved on to other places and things.

But it’s still there in my memories, that Hudson River, floating care-free and full of waste. I remember walking along the now MetroNorth rail tracks out toward Bear Mountain with Matty McKeon when a southbound train suddenly turned the

corner ahead. In remember Jimmy Evangelista, our own James Dean, the coolest dude in town, chugging a cold beer while hanging off one of the cables of the Bear Mountain Bridge. I remember making out with the beautiful Angie Gaetano in my father’s 1957 Chevy one night overlooking the river at Inspiration Point. I remember following Ba-Ba, our deaf-mute friend who thought he was a car, on his automotive journeys through nighttime Peekskill down to the river.

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Everything ended at the river. The only missing piece to its mystical allure was maybe a “ghat,” a holy place like in Benares, where maybe the now-dead Ba-Ba, Matty, Jimmy, Angie, my father, and even Tony and Freddy, could have entered it for one last time and floated away, covered in flotsam, toward the west and the unknown.

It’s in my will. Cremation. Take out a rowboat and dump what’s left of myself into the river in the spirit of the poet John Keats: “To be writ on water.”

Shopping

S

ome of our region’s villages are even sleepier than they once were, with not much shopping besides a general store. While these communities have a rural appeal, you may need to head elsewhere if you’re looking for stuff to buy other than household staples. Larger towns tend to be lively, with an array of boutiques and specialty shops. Each community has its own character, so drive around and see which places appeal to you.

You might find an emphasis on history, with antique shops housed in magnificent Victorian buildings. Towns that cater to hikers, hunters, and fisherfolk have camping stores with plenty of supplies for outdoor recreation. Where the arts are celebrated, look for bookstores, art galleries and music shops. If craftspeople live nearby, expect stores with local handmade items.

Some towns feature upscale boutiques with stylish clothing and decorative housewares. Almost every community has a gift shop with toys for the kids and Catskills souvenirs for the folks in the city.

Actually, many Main Streets (no matter what they’re actually called) include all these kinds of stores, with a tendency to feature more of one type. You will probably discover after one or two visits where your tastes lie, but be sure to look around.

Surprises await in all these quirky mountain and valley hamlets.

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• April - June, 2017

Explore Hudson Valley

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