Chronogram September 2005

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Chronogram ARTS.CULTURE.SPIRIT.

FOUNDERS Jason Stern & Amara Projansky

PUBLISHER

Jason Stern

EDITORIAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Brian K. Mahoney ART DIRECTOR

David Perry NEWS & POLITICS EDITOR

Lorna Tychostup ASSOCIATE EDITOR

view from the top 13 EDITOR'S NOTE Brian K. Mahoney introduces Chronogram's biggest issue ever!

16 ESTEEMED READER Jason Stern suggests inner activism as an agent of change.

news and politics 18 HOW THE HORROR BEGAN Eric Reeves writes a primer on the Darfur genocide.

24 WHEN PEACE IS WAR Lorna Tychostup on Cindy Sheehan's Crawford campout.

community notebook 18

30 MONTGOMERY MASTODON Kathryn Gill reports on a big find in Orange County.

32 WIND POWER Jonathan D. King ships out with the Kingston Sailing Club.

backbone 34 LUCID DREAMING Beth E. Wilson reviews the Photographic Triennial at CPW. 36 LIFE IN THE BALANCE Susan Piperato reports on kids as commodities.

38 FRANKLY SPEAKING Frank Crocitto performs open-heart surgery.

40 EAR WHACKS David Manley profile. CD Reviews, Nightlife Highlights.

44 PLANET WAVES Eric Francis Coppolino puts Libra on the scales. Plus horoscopes.

money, investing, and real estate 50 ARTICLES, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES.

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chef spotlight 61 STRIP SMALL SURPRISE Hal Jacobs visits Twist in Hyde Park.

64 TASTINGS A directory of what’s cooking and where to get it.

Susan Piperato CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Jim Andrews MUSIC EDITOR

Sharon Nichols BOOKS EDITOR

Nina Shengold WHOLE LIVING EDITOR

Lorrie Klosterman POETRY EDITOR

Phillip Levine COPY EDITOR

Andrea Birnbaum EDITORIAL INTERN

Felicia Hodges PROOFREADERS

Joyce Reed, Barbara Ross

PRODUCTION PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

Yulia Zarubina-Brill ASST. PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

Rebecca Zilinski PRODUCTION DESIGNER

Julie Novak PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Kiersten Miench DESIGN ASSISTANTS

Lorie Kellogg, Jim Maximowicz

PUBLISHING ADVERTISING SALES

Jamaine Bell, Ralph Jenkins OFFICE MANAGER

Lisa Mitchel-Shapiro OFFICE ASSISTANT

Molly Maeve Eagan TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR

Justin Zipperle MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION

art of business 74 GLASS BEACON Ann Braybrooks gets fired up about Hudson Beach Glass.

destination 76 KENT Part two of Kathryn Gill's report from the quiet western Connecticut village.

literary supplement 82 THE BEST OF LOCAL WRITING: FICTION, ESSAYS, & POETRY Edited by Nina Shengold and Mikhail Horowitz.

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whole living guide 106 SPIRITED MEDICINE Dina Greenberg reports on the rise in pastoral care.

110 FITTING SPIRITUALITY INTO YOUR BUSY DAY By Alan Seale.

112 WHOLE LIVING DIRECTORY Products and services for a positive lifestyle.

business directory/ad index 13 3 A COMPENDIUM OF ADVERTISER SERVICES 176 HOW TO CONTACT THE ADVERTISERS FOUND IN THESE PAGES

the forecast 151 DAILY CALENDAR 173 ART GALLERIES

dwellings 178 MID-HUDSON REAL ESTATE LISTINGS

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parting shot 180 GIRL #5 A Polaroid by Melissa Stafford from her "Paper Girls" series.

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Tamara Zipperle SALES & MARKETING INTERNS

Amalia Camargo, Kirsten White CONTRIBUTORS Emil Alzamora, Sam Baden, Michael Bernier, Ann Braybrooks, Eric Francis Coppolino, Frank Crocitto, Michael Croswell, DJ Wavy Davy, Ned Depew, Mike Dubisch, Kathryn Gill, Dina Greenberg, Hillary Harvey, Mikhail Horowitz, Harold Jacobs, Jonathan D. King, Susan Krawitz, Jason Kremkau, J.B. Lowe, Dane McCauley, Eric Reeves Fionn Reilly, Angelika Rinnhofer, Alan Seale, Danny Shanahan, Sparrow, Pauline Uchmanowicz, Beth E. Wilson, Carol Zaloom,Vladimir Zimakov ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2005

LU M I N A R Y

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On the Cover

Single Book

ramon lascano | 2005 altered book, 10" x 13" photographed by the artist

P

aper and books support and inform our creativity—a fact that is perhaps best appreciated come September, when school begins again (and in this month's Literary Supplement, page 80). Artist Ramon Lascano celebrates paper and learning by turning discarded books into sculptures. Using primarily map encyclopedias, Lascano folds each page of a book to create an intricate textural form. Sometimes he combines several books to form wall-mounted murals or free-standing installations of larger geometric shapes such as diamonds, rhomboids, squares, or columns.

Born and raised in Argentina, Lascano emigrated to the US while studying architecture at Bard College in 1974. His "Altered Books" series “explores pattern and shape,” he explains.

“Combinations of books create visual rhythms both in the overall shape and of the folds. The text wraps in and around the folds, creating additional patterns which are complemented by light and shadows falling on the pages.”

Lascano’s larger works are featured through September 25 in the group exhibition “Pulp: Works on Paper” (also including work by Sarah Berney, Kathy Burge, Valerie Hammond, and Leigh Palmer, among others) at Carrie Haddad Gallery, 622 Warren Street, Hudson. His smaller works will be included in the gallery’s "Winter show." For more information: (518) 8281915; www.carriehaddadgallery.com.

Ramon Lascano is also the co-owner of Haddad Lascano Gallery, 297 Main Street, Great Barrington, Massachusetts. For information: (413) 528-0471; www.haddadlascano.com.

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Editor’s Note Here are some facts about the September 2005 Chronogram, our biggest issue to date: This magazine is 180 pages.

While certainly not Vogue-esque in stature (see below), this month’s book easily eclipses our next-largest issue, September 2004, which came in at 168 pages. (An historical aside: A trip to the basement archives revealed that our first issue at our current trim size—for those who do not know this, Chronogram was a pocket-sized magazine for many years, until October 1999—was a mere 80 pages, and featured on its cover a garish pink birthday cake against an Astroturf background, a photograph shot by our art director at that time, Molly Rubin.)

This magazine’s dimensions: 9.5 x 12.75 x .5 inches.

While I am not now, nor have I ever been, a fan of “Seinfeld,” the show that epitomized the tooclever by-half, empty-headed ’90s, I recall one episode fondly. Jerry’s crazy neighbor, Kramer, publishes a coffee-table book whose genius and novelty was that it had legs that folded down, thus turning itself into a coffee table, capable of supporting a mug of coffee and a dish of Bundt cake.

This magazine might be employed in a similar way by a handy reader able to affix dowels, sticks, or other contrivances to be used as legs, to the back cover. (If anyone is so inclined to try to fabricate this absurd fantasy of mine, please send a photograph of it to bmahoney@chronogram.com and we’ll run it in the next issue.)

This magazine weighs 1 lb., 5 oz.

As a means of comparison, consider this: The 802-page September issue of Vogue, Conde Nast’s flagship fashion magazine, weighs over five pounds and is the size of a Manhattan phone book. (I hope no undernourished waifs break their arms trying to lift copies off the newsstand. And think of the long-suffering postal carriers!)

This magazine contains over 60,000 words.

Sixty-thousand words is a rough approximation—I did not have a brigade of interns run word counts on every piece of editorial—and does not include any advertising copy, which, if counted would surely put us closer to the 100,000 mark. Sixty-thousand words is the length of a shortish novel (or a long novella); William Golding’s classic book about English schoolboys run amok in nature, Lord of the Flies, is 60,000 words.

This magazine has over 100 contributors.

It amazes me—the most cyncial resident of my region—to think that so many people’s efforts went into the making of this object that is more than an object. (This fact calls to mind barn-raisings, plattitudes about community, and clichéd book titles by Hillary Clinton.)

Who are all these people? Well, there’s me, who gets to write the column and take all the credit.

Then there’s the rest of those who work in-house: the production staff, the sales and marketing staff, the administrative staff, the support staff, and the interns. Then there’s the dozen part-time editors who give shape to Chronogram from their homes across the Mid-Hudson region. And the proofreaders. And the freelance designers. And the guys who drive the distribution trucks. And, of course, there’s the 60 writers, poets, photographers, cartoonists, and illustrators whose work appears in this issue.

Thanks to every one of you. I am grateful for having the opportunity to work with you in this magnificent enterprise.

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Goodbyes Summer’s over, and just as the heat has left us, so we bid farewell to our summer interns, Amalia Carmargo, Felicia Hodges, Corah Walker, and Kirsten White. They were, to a person, a cheerful and wonderful presence in the office, and extremely helpful and efficient. We would have hired them all, had we the positions available. (Except for Corah, who’s only 13—she came to us through the YWCA’s Youth Leadership Program—and probably wouldn’t have taken the job anyway, as it might have slowed down her inexorable march to the White House in 2032.)

And it is with heavy heart that we say goodbye to Rebecca Zilinski, our assistant production director. While we’re all quite pleased that Rebecca landed a full scholarship to the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, and that she wishes to teach art to some as-yet-undefined age group, we fear that our intra-office instant messenger will never be the same without her incisive wit.

—Brian K. Mahoney

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Letters

Hating “Feeling the Hate” Chris Hedges’s piece, “Feeling the Hate,” [8/05] raises the flag of fear against “militant Christianity.” It is reminiscent of the McCarthyites waiving lists of alleged Communists. In their world and Hedges’s, disagreement or opposition is synonymous with hate. For them, disagree with current attempts to normalize homosexuality and you hate homosexuals.

Hedges’s article brought to mind columnist Don Feder’s point that diatribes of that type in the liberal press have the ring of hypocrisy. Feder, who is Jewish, wrote: “When other groups (environmentalists, feminists, peace activists, etc.) organize to effect political change through education, media, lobbying, and get out the vote efforts, it is called democracy. When certain Christians try it—theocracy is just around the corner.”

Regarding about Short Cut to Nirvana, the documentary film by N. Day and M. Benazzo, the uncritical peon of praise to a culture that sustained suttee and to a large extent still sustains the caste system brought to mind the song, “I’ve Got a Little List” from Gilbert and Sullivan: “Then there’s the idiot who / praises with enthusiastic tone / all faiths (the original has “centuries”) but his / and every country but his own.”

It also made one wonder how Mother Theresa and her nuns ever kept busy over there. None of this is too surprising from a man whose understanding of Catholicism is so superficial as to think that a life of evil can be immediately swept clean without penance by a final and likely insincere claim of sorrow. In point of fact, all religions can be false but they certainly all can’t be true. Tolerance and diversity are always called for as helps in our search for the true but should never be allowed to obscure the fact that there is objective truth and it is attainable.

Dick Murphy, Beacon

Department of Corrections In an article previewing a benefit performance for the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in our August issue, the contact information was edited out. To donate or volunteer to WFAS, visit www.woodstockfas.org.

There were two errors in our “Pick-Your-Own Farms” listings last month. The website of Prospect Hill Orchard is www.pro specthillorchards.com. Also, we omitted Stone Ridge Orchard (www.stoneridgeorchard.com), located on Rt. 213 in Stone Ridge, where a dozen varieties of apples and pears are available for picking, as well as raspberries, red currants and blackberries.

We misspelled Joni Sternbach’s name last month in our Parting Shot. The correct spelling (and the reprised image), are above.

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Esteemed Reader “Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” —Jesus

Esteemed Reader of Our Magazine:

Regardless of where we stand on “the issues”; whether we support the war(s); whether we are pro-labor or pro-business; whether we care about the environment or think education and social programs are important—we must agree that the situation is desperate.

So what can we do about it?

The modes of activism are many. If we subscribe to the political system, we vote in the elections, write letters to congresspeople, send money, attend demonstrations. We may contribute to environmental organizations and do our part to recycle and take steps toward sustainability. We may make efforts to disseminate alternative viewpoints.

These are all more or less valid steps toward change. But there is one mode upon which the success of all these others depend.

Inner activism.

Looking within we see that just as the world is in conflict, so are we conflicted. Just as the world is squandering its resources, we also are wasting our energy. The same impetus that brings a government to wage social, economic, or military violence against another nation or its own population is present in us.

We are microcosms, “small worlds,” that comprise the larger body of our society, and so it follows that effecting peace and truth in the larger world necessitates bringing peace and truth into our own persons To be clear, I am not referring to self-improvement or changes in behavior. True selfknowledge comes from self-observation in the moment.

The fruit of this effort is not data—it’s insight.

To know ourselves is to behold the conflicting impulses; to apprehend monkey mind, the fidgeting body, and the self-involved emotions. Like the child that requires only a sharp look from an adult to heed her knowledge, our parts are affected by being seen.

To be the Witness is to make peace—first within our own body, heart, and mind, and then in the world. Truly this work on ourselves is the ultimate activism.

—Jason Stern Chronogram publisher Jason Stern will present a free lecture introducing the timeless teachings of work on self entitled “Inner Activism: The Work to Transform Ourselves and the World,” on Sunday, September 11, 2005, at 7:30pm at The Sanctuary, 5 Academy Street, New Paltz. For more information call (845) 334-8621 or e-mail Jason at jstern@chronogram.com.

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HOW THE HORROR BEGAN GENOCIDE IN DARFUR In one of the most remote places in Africa, an insurgency began unnoticed under the shadow of the war in Iraq in 2003, killing 350,000 to 400,000 people in 29 months by means of violence, malnutrition, and disease in the first genocidal rampage of the 21st century.

T

he insurgeny began virtually unnoticed in February 2003; it has, over the past two years, precipitated the first great episode of genocidal destruction in the 21st century.

The victims are the non-Arab or African tribal groups of Darfur, primarily the Fur, the Massaleit, and the Zaghawa, but also the Tunjur, the Birgid, the Dajo, and others. These people have long been politically and economically marginalized, and in recent years the National Islamic Front regime, based in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum, has refused to control increasingly violent Arab militia raids of African villages in Darfur. Competition between Arab and African tribal groups over the scarce primary resources in Darfur—arable land and water—has been exacerbated by advancing desertification throughout the Sahel region.

But it was Khartoum’s failure to respond to the desperate economic needs of this huge region (it is the size of France), the decayed judiciary, the lack of political representation, and in particular the growing impunity on the part of Arab raiders that gave rise to the full-scale armed conflict.

Not directly related to the 21-year civil conflict that recently formally ended in southern Sudan—a historic agreement was signed in Nairobi on January 9, 2005—Darfur’s insurgency found early success against Khartoum’s regular military forces. But this success had a terrible consequence: The regime in Khartoum switched from a military strategy of direct confrontation to a policy of systematically destroying the African tribal groups perceived as the civilian base of support for the insurgents. The primary instrument in this new policy has been the Janjaweed, a loosely organized Arab militia force of perhaps 20,000 men, primarily on horse and camel.

This force is dramatically different in character, military strength, and purpose from previous militia raiders. Khartoum ensured that the Janjaweed were extremely heavily armed, well-supplied, and actively coordinating with the regime’s regular ground and air forces. Indeed, Human Rights Watch obtained in July 2004 confidential Sudanese government documents that directly implicate high-ranking government officials in a policy of support for the Janjaweed. “It’s absurd to distinguish between the Sudanese government forces and the militias—they are one,” says Peter Takirambudde, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division. “These documents show that militia activity has not just been condoned, it’s been specifically supported by Sudan government officials.”

EVIDENCE OF GENOCIDE The nature of the attacks on African villages in Darfur—as reported by numerous human rights groups—makes clear the Khartoum regime’s genocidal intent. Janjaweed assaults, typically conducted in concert with Khartoum’s regular military forces (including helicopter gunships and Antonov bombers), have been comprehensively destructive of both human life and livelihood: men and boys killed en masse, women and girls raped or abducted, and all means of agricultural production destroyed. Thriving villages have had buildings burned, water sources poisoned, irrigation systems torn up, food and seed stocks destroyed, and fruit trees cut down. Cattle have been looted on a massive scale, and most of those not looted have died from lack of water and food, as people flee into the inhospitable wastes of this arid region.

According to Article 2 of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide—to which the US and all current members of the UN Security Council are party—genocide encompasses not only the deliberate killing of members of a “national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such,” but also “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” The latter is what we have seen in Darfur.

As a result, agricultural production has largely come to a halt in Darfur, and the United Nations estimates that in the very near future 3.5 million people will be in urgent need of food assistance (the total population of Darfur is approximately 6.5 million). Moreover, there is no sign that the current planting season will yield a significant fall harvest. Huge civilian populations—well over two million people—will be dependent on food aid for the foreseeable future. Many of these people will die in what has become genocide by attrition.

THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS The current rainy season in Darfur is already creating immense logistical problems for humanitarian aid groups, as it did last summer. Darfur is one of the most remote places in Africa, and quite distant from navigable bodies of water. Both food and critical nonfood items (medical supplies, shelter, equipment for clean water) must be transported over land by truck or (much

BY ERIC REEVES 18

Radu Sigheti/REUTERS

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Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS

MEMBERS OF THE SUDANESE LIBERATION ARMY IN THE VILLAGE OF TARENJER, IN THE DARFUR REGION, ON OCTOBER 11, 2004.

more expensively) flown into the regional capitals of the three Darfur states.

Though humanitarian organizations are performing heroically under extremely difficult conditions, it’s clear that there is a deadly mismatch between humanitarian capacity and human need. As the rains sever various transport corridors and insecurity closes others, many villages and communities are becoming inaccessible. This occurs against the backdrop of a traditional “hunger gap”—the period between spring planting and fall harvest.

Moreover, the overcrowded camps for displaced persons—now the only place of refuge for more than two million people—face serious shortages of sanitary facilities. The threat of waterborne disease is becoming acute, as many of the camps are little more than open sewers. Outbreaks of cholera or dysentery could quickly claim tens of thousands of lives in addition to those already claimed by violence, disease, and malnutrition. Extant data suggest that between 350,000 and 400,000 have perished during the past 29 months.

A recent UN mortality assessment indicates that more than 6,000 continue to die every month, and Jan Egeland, UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs, has warned that the toll may climb to 100,000 per month if insecurity forces humanitarian organizations to withdraw from Darfur. Banditry, hijacking of humanitarian convoys, and attacks on humanitarian workers have grown relentlessly in recent months, even as there has been 20

a decline in major conflict between Khartoum’s regular forces and the insurgency groups.

Peace negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria, have done nothing to rein in the Janjaweed militia, and a small African Union monitoring force on the ground has had only marginal effect in addressing civilian and humanitarian security needs. The death total in Darfur’s genocide may reach that of Rwanda’s by year’s end.

RACISM AND ISLAMISM IN KHARTOUM The National Islamic Front (which has attempted to rename itself innocuously as the “National Congress Party”) is essentially unchanged since it seized power from a democratically elected government in a 1989 military coup, deliberately aborting Sudan’s most promising peace process since independence in 1956.

With the exception of Islamist ideologue Hassan El-Turabi—the mastermind of the 1989 coup who split with his former allies and is no longer part of the government—the same brutal men still control the NIF 16 years after it seized power. Field Marshal Omer El-Beshir retains the presidency, and Ali Osman Taha—arguably the most powerful man in Sudan—serves as vice president and controls the terrifyingly efficient security services. Nafie Ali Nafie, Gutbi Al-Mahdi, and other longtime members of the NIF serve in various advisory capacities. And Major General Saleh Abdallah Gosh, recently flown to Washington by the CIA, retains control of the Mukhabarat (Sudan’s intelligence and security service)

even as he is among those members of the NIF indicted at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity in Darfur.

These are the men who settled on a genocidal response to the insurgency movements that emerged in Darfur in early 2003. But the NIF’S history of genocide goes back much further than the current catastrophe in Darfur. Animated by a radical Islamism and sense of Arab racial superiority, the movement engaged in genocide almost from the time it seized power. A year ago, seasoned Sudan watcher Alex de Waal of the British group Justice Africa wrote for the London Review of Books what remains one of the best overviews of the Darfur crisis. In the piece, he observed that genocide in Darfur is not the genocidal campaign of a government at the height of its ideological hubris, as the 1992 jihad in the Nuba Mountains was, or coldly determined to secure natural resources, as when it sought to clear the oilfields of southern Sudan of their troublesome inhabitants. This is the routine cruelty of a security cabal, its humanity withered by years in power; it is genocide by force of habit. As part of a ghastly jihad, the NIF conducted relentless military assaults on civilians and enforced a humanitarian aid embargo that lasted more than a decade.

The same men ordered the scorched-earth clearances of the oil regions in southern Sudan to provide security for the operations of international oil companies. The actions of oil companies from Canada, Sweden, Austria, China, Malaysia, and

India—directly supporting the NIF regime—constitute one of the most shameful episodes in the long and terrible history of resource extraction in Africa.

The result of these policies was that between 1989 and 2002 many hundreds of thousands of Sudanese were either killed or displaced. In the Nuba Mountains and the oil regions of southern Sudan, as in Darfur, the NIF regime settled upon a deliberate policy of human destruction, targeting ethnically African populations that had rebelled against, or were victims of, decades of political and economic marginalization.

The July 9 inauguration of a new Sudanese “government of national unity” (GNU) has appropriately received a good deal of news coverage. (The GNU represents the culmination of an arduous peace process going back almost a decade and the formal end to war in southern Sudan.

Perhaps the most destructive civil conflict since World War II and one of the longest wars in Africa’s history, it saw the Christian and animist South pitted against the Muslim, Arab-speaking North. As many as 2.5 million people have died since the second phase of the civil war began in 1983—and likely more than four million if we consider its earlier phase (1955-72). More than five million people were displaced by the war—Sudan has the world’s largest population of internally displaced persons—and southern Sudan was utterly devastated.)

John Garang, the 60-year-old guerilla leader of the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, was killed in a helicopter crash on July 30, just three weeks after being inaugurated as “First Vice President” in the GNU. One of the few elder southern statesman who believed in a united Sudan, Garang was pivotal in securing the peace agreement that ended the civil war and was a symbol of hope for many in the south. It was assumed in many quarters that Garang—as someone long sympathetic to the cause of Sudan’s marginalized peoples—would use his new position to help end genocide in Darfur. His death has raised fears about the newly established peace, with some southerners claiming the Sudanese government, dominated by their northern opponents, might have played a role in it. A seven-member team is investigating the crash and is scheduled to present its findings by early September.

WHO IS DYING Darfur’s prewar population of approximately 6.5 million was perhaps 60 to 65 percent non-Arab—some four million “Africans.” In fact, all Darfuris are African, and skin color is a wholly inadequate measure of ethnicity. But ethnic differences do exist—the use of Arabic as a first language, agricultural practices, and a variety of more subtle cultural differences—and identification by ethnicity comes easily to Darfuris, even in matters such as gait and attire. But of this population of roughly four million “Africans,” UN figures for displacement, or even for those defined as “conflict-affected,” cannot account for more than one million people. Some are in urban areas, but hundreds of thousands have died (more on exactly how many below), and hundreds of thousands more are at risk in inaccessible rural areas of Darfur.

Sometime in summer 2004—we’ll probably never know just when—human mortality in the Darfur genocide became more a function of malnutrition and disease than violent destruction. What we must not lose sight of is that deaths from malnutrition and disease are no less the product of genocidal ambitions than violent killings: Having so comprehensively and deliberately destroyed the villages and livelihoods of the African tribal populations of Darfur, Khartoum and its Janjaweed allies bear full responsibility for the ongoing deadly consequences of these assaults on civilian targets.

The consensus among Darfuris in exile, at least those who have access to sources on the ground in Darfur, is that approximately 90 percent of all African villages have now been destroyed. But as villagers have fled to camps for displaced persons and into eastern Chad, they have created extremely vulnerable populations in highly concentrated locations. The United Nations reports approximately two million people in camps for displaced persons to which it has access in Darfur and another 200,000 refugees inside Chad along the Darfur border. Many hundreds of thousands of people remain unaccounted for—dead, hiding, staying with host families in other locations, or simply unregistered by the United Nations.

Those inside the camps must contend not only with relentless insecurity but with overcrowding, inadequate sanitary facilities, shortcomings in shelter, and severe water shortages—in some locations people have been forced to survive on what humanitarian groups consider less than half the daily human requirement of water. Though the rainy season may alleviate this problem, the torrential rains also create severe risks for outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera and dysentery. There were no major outbreaks of either disease in summer 2004; displaced Darfuris are very unlikely to again escape diseases that can claim tens of thousands of lives in a matter of weeks.

Food shortages, however, remain the greatest threat to human life in Darfur. Darfuris normally rely on foraging in times of desperation, but the insecurity that continues to be created by the Janjaweed makes this impossible. Many of the hundreds of thousands in inaccessible rural areas are slowly starving.

Children, as always, are most vulnerable.

Insecurity prevented a significant planting this spring and early summer (normally the major planting season in the agricultural calendar), so there will be no fall harvest—this after last fall’s severely attenuated harvest.

Significant domestic food production in Darfur will not be in evidence until fall 2006—at the earliest. People already weakened by malnutrition have become increasingly vulnerable to disease and will only become weaker and more vulnerable in the months ahead. Genocidal mortality will continue for years.

Last December, Jan Egeland, the UN’s Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs, estimated that if insecurity forces the withdrawal of humanitarian operations, as many as 100,000 may die every month. And as Kofi Annan recently noted in his report to the Security Council, threats against humanitarian workers are on the rise.

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21

Finbarr O’Reily/REUTERS

SUDANESE LIBERATION ARMY REBELS WALK THROUGH AN UNIDENTIFIED VILLAGE WEST OF EL FASHER, CAPITAL OF NORTH DARFUR, ON NOVEMBER 8, 2004.

There is compelling data concerning violent mortality. Even with significant biases toward undercounting, the data assembled by the Coalition for International Justice (CIJ), the organization appointed by the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (US AID) to research human destruction, strongly suggests that more than 200,000 people have died violently in Darfur. Though not technically an epidemiological study, the CIJ report cannot be ignored, since there is no alternative source of data. The key finding was that 61 percent of those interviewed had witnessed the killing of a family member during an assault by Janjaweed or regular military forces.

This data, along with previous mortality data from the World Health Organization and other humanitarian organizations, and several key epidemiological studies, suggest that between 350,000 and 400,000 people have died from all causes—violence, malnutrition, and disease—in Darfur’s genocide. The impending spike upward in monthly mortality rates, and the great likelihood that genocide by attrition will continue for months and years, suggest, that total mortality may eventually exceed that of Rwanda in 1994. Unfortunately, news media have almost all failed to take account of the mortality data available, particularly data suggesting a total for violent mortality.

THE FUTURE OF DARFUR There is no sign that normal agricultural production will resume any time in the near future. There is no sign that the insecurity confining people to camps for the displaced or villages under siege will be alleviated, even with the currently planned deployment of additional African Union personnel. There is no sign 22

that the international community intends to fund humanitarian efforts in Darfur at an appropriate level. There is no sign that Khartoum’s National Islamic Front, and the new government it dominates, has changed its genocidal ambitions, now best served by preserving the deadly status quo. There is no sign that peace negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria will yield more than the vaguely worded “declaration of principles” signed last month. And there is no sign of the international humanitarian intervention that might stop the genocide.

There are only signs that the dying will continue indefinitely.

The US response to Darfur must be understood in the context of Bush-administration efforts to end Sudan’s north-south war—as well as the administration’s attempt to secure intelligence from Khartoum on international terrorism. (The National Islamic Front hosted Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda from 1991 to 1996, and retained strong connections even when bin Laden moved to Afghanistan.) These have been policy priorities despite the administration’s explicit conclusion, first announced by former Secretary of State Colin Powell last September, that genocide was taking place in Darfur and that the Khartoum government was playing a role.

The Bush administration invested heavily in negotiating an end to the north-south war, and the signing earlier this year of a formal peace agreement—however limited and flawed—must be recognized as a major foreign policy achievement. But precisely because of the administration’s investment in a north-south agreement, including the appointment of former Senator John Danforth as special envoy to Sudan, there was widespread reluc-

tance within the State Department to hold Khartoum accountable for the genocide that was clearly unfolding in early 2004, when north-south peace negotiations had entered their final phase.

The thinking by US officials involved in the negotiations, and their British and Norwegian counterparts, was that pressing the National Islamic Front regime too hard on Darfur would undermine the chances of consummating the north-south agreement. But this diplomatic strategy was of course transparent to Khartoum and thus perversely provided an incentive for the regime to extend negotiations as long as possible—always promising a light at the end of the diplomatic tunnel.

The last issue of substance between Khartoum and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement was resolved in a protocol signed by all parties in late May 2004. Two weeks later, following months of terrifying reports from human rights groups, the State Department announced that it would begin an investigation to determine whether Khartoum was guilty of genocide in Darfur. The close sequence of dates was not a coincidence.

But a tremendous amount of the violent destruction in Darfur had already been accomplished by June 2004; indeed, this marks the approximate point in the conflict at which deaths from malnutrition and disease began to exceed those from violence.

Moreover, Khartoum continued to use the north-south peace agreement as a threat, declaring with brazen confidence that if it were pushed too hard on Darfur, the negotiated agreement might be endangered. The agreement’s final signing ceremony occurred in Nairobi on January 9, 2005; the inauguration of a new government took place six months later, on July 9, 2005; the killing in Darfur, of course, continues.

US belatedness in responding with appropriate determination to genocide was mirrored in the flaccid responses of European countries, individually and through the European Union. Canada, Japan, the Arab League, and the African Union were no better. America has been the most generous nation in providing humanitarian assistance to Darfur, reflecting chiefly the determination of officials at US AID. Meanwhile, the commitments of other countries to relief efforts have been less than stellar. The financial responses of Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and the oil-rich Arab countries have been scandalously laggard.

THE AFRICAN UNION IN DARFUR The AU began to deploy a small number of monitors to Darfur following a ceasefire signed in April 2004 in N’Djamena, Chad. A commitment in late summer 2004 to increase the monitoring force to approximately 3,500 went unfulfilled for over half a year, and during this time the AU was unable to secure from Khartoum a mandate for civilian protection—only a mandate to monitor the largely nonexistent ceasefire. Recently, the AU has said it will increase its force to 7,700 by September, and possibly 12,000 by spring 2006.

As many have recognized, the AU is quite unable to deploy to this force-level with its own resources and NATO, as a consequence, has very recently agreed to provide logistics and transport capacity. The bigger problem, however, is that even with NATO’s help, the nascent AU Peace and Security Commission is simply not up to this mission if the goal for Darfur is adequate protection for civilians and humanitarian operations. The AU does not have the troops, equipment, or essential interoperability of forces that are necessary given the scale of the crisis. Those paying the price for disingenuous suggestions to the contrary are vulnerable civilian populations and humanitarian aid workers.

Recently, Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio of Senegal refused to accept any longer what has become the mantra of “African solutions for African problems.” Gadio declared, on the occasion of a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that his government was “totally dissatisfied” with the hollowness of AU claims to be able to stop genocide in Darfur. Calling the situation “totally unacceptable,” he continued: “We don’t like the fact that the African Union has asked the international community to allow us to bring an African solution to an African problem and unfortunately the logistics from our own governments do not follow.”

This honesty is remarkable, the more so since Nigeria—current chair of the African Union—has declared at various points that the situation is fully in hand and actually improving. Comments to this effect have come from both President Obasanjo and General Festus Okonkwo, the Nigerian commander of AU forces in Darfur. Nigeria has strong-armed into silence many African nations. The country, which wants to maintain good relations with the Muslim world even as it confronts militant Islam in northern Nigerian states, has yielded to pressure from the Arab League—especially Libya and Egypt—to define the Darfur genocide as an African problem rather than an international one.

Genocidal destruction in Darfur will continue for the foreseeable future. The resources to halt massive, ethnically targeted destruction—of lives and livelihoods—are nowhere in sight. The consequences of this destruction, now extending over almost two and a half years, will be evident for years—in villages that have been burned to the ground, in poisoned water sources, in the cruel impoverishment of people who have lost everything, in deaths that will continue to mount relentlessly.

There is currently no evidence that the international community is prepared to deploy adequate protection for either Darfur’s vulnerable civilian populations or endangered humanitarian operations. August, traditionally the month of heaviest rains, saw a further attenuation of relief efforts, as transport of food and other critical supplies became mired in flooded riverbeds and blocked by severed road arteries. At the same time, waterborne diseases, along with malaria and a wide range of communicable diseases, will take huge numbers of lives. These diseases will be particularly potent killers because so much of the civilian population of Darfur has been seriously weakened by malnutrition. Famine conditions have already been identified in parts of Darfur, and the UN’s World Food Program estimates that 3.5 million people will need food assistance in the near future.

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OUR MORAL CHOICE It is important that the stark moral choice confronting the international community be absolutely clear. History must not record this moment as one in which our decision was uninformed by either the scale of the human catastrophe or an understanding of what is required to stop genocidal destruction.

And so, despite the long odds against an intervention actually taking place, it is our obligation to say with conviction and understanding the most urgent truth: In the absence of humanitarian intervention, Darfur’s civilian population, as well as humanitarian workers, will be consigned to pervasive, deadly insecurity; displaced persons will remain trapped in camps that are hotbeds of disease; agricultural production will remain at a standstill, leaving millions of people dependent on international food assistance for the foreseeable future; aid workers will continue to fall prey to targeted and opportunistic violence.

In other words, the genocide in Darfur will continue. We can stop it. We are simply choosing not to.

Eric Reeves is a professor at Smith College and an expert on Darfur. For more information see Reeves’s website, www.sudanreeves.org. Reprinted with permission of the New Republic, 2005.

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WHEN PEACE IS WAR CINDY SHEEHAN & THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT In August, Cindy Sheehan kept an almost month-long vigil outside the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, protesting the war in Iraq. Is Sheehan the charismatic leader the anti-war movement has been searching for, or will her message be diluted by a cacophony of additional voices?

C

indy Sheehan and President Bush have at least one thing in common: They’re both busy people with hectic schedules who had the month of August off. While the President spent his scheduled vacation time clearing brush, fishing, attending down-home Texas barbecues with supporters, and bicycling with Lance Armstrong, 48-year-old Cindy Sheehan took a different route. Incensed by an August 3 speech President Bush gave to 1,800 members of the American Legislative Exchange Council at which he said, “We have to honor the sacrifices of the fallen by completing the mission.…The families of the fallen can be assured that they died for a noble cause,” Sheehan had a brainstorm, she told the crowd of 250 during her keynote speech at the Veterans for Peace (VFP) convention in Dallas on August 4: That she would go to President Bush’s vacation ranch in Crawford, Texas, pitch a tent outside, and wait “until that jerk comes out and tells me why my son died.”

Sheehan’s 24-year-old son Casey was killed in a battle with Shiite militia members on April 4, 2004, in the poverty-stricken slum of Baghdad’s Sadr City. Assigned to the First Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, First Cavalry Division, of Fort Hood, Texas, his unit was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. Casey was an army specialist and volunteered to be part of a quick-response team when rioting broke out in Baghdad. An AP report following his memorial service quoted his sister Carly: “All he wanted to do was serve God and his country his whole life. He was a Boy Scout from age six or seven and an Eagle Scout. It was kind of a natural progression to go into the military from that. He said he was enjoying the military because it was just like the Boy Scouts, but they got guns.”

A LONE VOICE BREAKS THROUGH During Sheehan’s vigil, she was joined each day by new arrivals of anti-war folk, drawn to her side as pilgrims are to Mecca. A beacon of light in the pathetic showing of the American peace movement and its dismal failure to gain traction since the toppling of Saddam’s statue, Sheehan’s voice broke through a media that has been stunningly silent on US anti-war sentiment. Her voice carries a sincere and all-too-real message: Bring our troops home, President Bush, before any more come home in a box like my son Casey. Not satisfied by sending her

plea through a salivating media suffering its way through the historically slow news month of August, Sheehan simply asked to meet with the president during his month-long vacation and deliver this message in person.

There is a might in a mother’s grief unseen in any other situation. For some, the grief goes inward and plays itself out in a landscape of silent screams. For others, it creates a drive that will not be stopped until the grief has been sated or abated. In Sheehan’s case, her grief seems to be giving voice to an unrepresented majority of Americans—those who have difficult and heavy-hearted questions about the war in Iraq and yet are marginalized by the vociferous, usagainst-them banterings of those on the extreme left and right.

Sheehan’s words at the VFP convention were a clear and harsh call-out to President Bush.

“We have this lying bastard, George Bush, taking a five-week vacation in a time of war. You know what? I’m never going to get to enjoy another vacation, because of him.…I said to my son not to go. I said, ‘You know it’s wrong, you know you’re going over there. You know your unit might have to kill innocent people, you know you might die.’ And he said, ‘My buddies are going, I have to go. If I don’t go someone’s going to have to do my job, and my buddies will be in danger.’ So what really gets me is these chickenhawks, who sent our kids to die, without ever serving in a war themselves. They don’t know what it’s all about.”

Sheehan is one of seven founding families of Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization that came together at the beginning of 2005. Available to speak at events at a moments notice, they serve as a support group for those who have lost friends or family members “as a result of war,” under a stated mission “to be a positive force in our world to bring our country’s sons and daughters home from Iraq, to minimize the ‘human cost’ of this war, and to prevent other families from the pain we are feeling as the result of our losses.” Their website membership list includes only 70 families who lost loved ones not only in Iraq, but Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, and World War II. As of August 19, 1,861 US soldiers had died as a result of Operation Iraqi freedom. But it is Sheehan, speaking out with her simple, focused message, who has reached a media pinnacle from her roadside vigil in Texas. She has become the main voice of the Gold Star Families for Peace and gotten the media’s attention that has in turn woken up sleepy anti-war voices who are now jumping on her bandwagon.

BY LORNA TYCHOSTUP 24

Jason Reed/REUTERS

A FLAG FLUTTERS AMONG SYMBOLIC CROSSES REPRESENTING US SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ AT “CAMP CASEY,” IN CRAWFORD, TEXAS ON AUGUST 17.

A CALL TO ACTION According to reports posted in an ongoing blog hosted by Truthout.com covering the Crawford vigil, after announcing her plan to go to Crawford at the VFP convention, Sheehan asked the crowd, “Who can drive me?” Hands went up across the room, word went out on the Internet, and by 8:30 the next morning, 15 cars and a bus were gassed up with 40 to 50 activists ready to go. Arriving at Crawford, the group set up what soon came to be named “Camp Casey” in honor of Sheehan’s slain son. Within a few days numbers onsite grew to approximately 80 people, with another 80 staying in nearby hotels and homes, and 50 or 60 more stopping by.

Donations and supplies began to pour in, and before long folks were coming from as far away as New Jersey, Montana, Georgia, California, Alabama, New York, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Pennsylvania.

The national and international media swarmed in, and Sheehan began to give interviews round-the-clock. People promised to put Sheehan on its cover. Chronogram’s scheduled interview with Sheehan on August 19 got bumped due to Sheehan’s need to be rested for the passing of Bush’s motorcade on its way to a local Republican fundraiser (the first Bush drive-by since Sheehan’s arrival in Crawford). Calls to Jodie Evans of Code Pink (an anti-war offshoot of the human rights group Global Exchange ) to reschedule went unanswered. Around that same time it was reported that True Majority hired Fenton Communications to handle Sheehan’s PR. DILUTING THE MESSAGE By that time, anti-war hordes were making their way to Crawford, most looking to support Sheehan and others…well, as has been the case of many of the major peace rallies since 9/11, every Tom, Dick, and Annie with an agenda to sell turned up. Nervously treading into the dangerously murky waters of what some feel is very wrong with the left’s anti-war movement, Truthout.com editor William Rivers Pitt wrote on August 11: I may sound like a bit of a heretic saying this, but I have a rogue nerve tingling a concern right now. Until today, the group here was relatively small, everyone knew each other and everyone was entirely on the same page. Now there appears to be a bunch of new folks here, and they all mean well, but a number of them appear inspired to be interested in dragging the whole thing toward whatever inspires them. There is a Pamphleteer Guy with his anti-theocracy newspaper buttonholing everyone he can find to buy his paper.

There are the young radicals who are arguing with themselves about what actions they can take, whether or not those actions have anything to do with Cindy. There is nothing wrong right now. I just hope the people who have just come, and the people on the way, remember to be down for the main cause that started this. It would be a real tragedy if this turned into an ANSWER rally, with everyone rocking their own rallying cry. Right now this is laser-focused. It needs to stay that way.

ANSWER (Act Now To Stop War And End Racism), is a socialist group that, according to their website, formed in the days after 9/11 and is “a coalition of hundreds of organizations and prominent individuals and scores of organizing centers in cities and towns across the country.”

When Middle America began to come out in strong numbers at peace rallies held in places like New York City or Washington, DC, where ANSWER had a sponsoring presence, anti-war protesters were subjected to rant after rant on every social issue from Vieques to Venezuela to Palestine to the plight of grocery workers in California that diluted the singular “No War in Iraq” message.

I have often wondered if this is why the American peace movement has become so silent—too many messages drowning out the main point.

This issue rasied its head on August 15, when Chronogram received a press release from Judith Karpova, a local “author, nonviolent activist and one of the International Human Shields who traveled to Iraq just before ‘Shock and Awe.’” Announcing that she was “getting on a plane to Crawford to join other Human Shields” in support of Sheehan, Karpova’s press release highlighted and talked more about the activities, actions, and plights of herself and a few fellow Shields since returning from Iraq, than it did about Sheehan.

While many (and certainly Karpova), who flew down to Crawford to be by Sheehan’s side are genuine, steadfast, or as Pitt says, “well meaning” in their message, the simple truth is that there are also those among them who are media hounds, agendists, and dysfunctionaries, who will ultimately water-down and delegitimize Sheehan’s (and by proxy, any) succinct and rational anti-war message for the country to rally around. And even more damaging, they open up the message to distortion, by what media and political columnist Norman Solomon calls “the pro-war propaganda arsenal” of the US. In an August 17 TomPaine.com editorial, Solomon wrote, “Pro-Bush media hit squads are busily spreading the notions that Sheehan is a dupe of radicals, naïve and/or nutty.”

When told some Republicans commented that Sheehan was being used, and her message

25

Jason Reed/REUTERS

DEDE MILLER AND CINDY SHEEHAN AT SHEEHAN’S ROADSIDE VIGIL IN CRAWFORD ON AUGUST 17.

was being co-opted by anti-Bush liberal groups, Sheehan admitted to USA Today that some of her supporters were diverting attention from her central message. “I appreciate all their help, but their help is going to have to diminish and go to the sidelines,” Sheehan said. “It’s going to have to get back to a mom sitting in a chair waiting for George Bush.” Of those who suggest that her personal tragedy has become a political rallying point, she said, “I kind of see their point that this was a grassroots thing that grew into a monster.”

A CIRCUS IS A CIRCUS IS A CIRCUS I relate to Pitt’s “rogue nerve tingling a concern” and can say for a fact that there is more than a grain of truth in the presence of “naive and/or nutty radicals” in the anti-war movement. Among them are both old-time 60’s anti-war activists and others joined up in lieu of the war on Iraq. A mixed bag of these arrived in Baghdad shortly before midnight on February 15, 2003, International Peace Day, as two double-decker busloads of western Human Shields arrived at the Andalus Apartments hotel where I was staying. These people were willing to use their bodies as shields, placing themselves in infrastructure buildings and hospitals as a human repellent to bombs. They also brought with them their 26

own unique war. Many were contentious—bickering and openly fighting amongst themselves while taking in the free residency and meals supplied by the Saddam regime that welcomed their support. Their passions were both subdued and incited by their partying.

Playing roles as peace ambassadors, the question arose, just what were these westerners bringing with them? And what sort of messages, and/or reports, were being sent—both to Iraqis and to the world—through the specific baggage they brought along? When faced with stories from Iraqis themselves as to the horrors of the Saddam regime, some ignored these tales that didn’t match their agendas, while others broke rank and fled the country.

The Iraq war-related media has the same smattering of circus among its minions as well. In her July 2004 article, “The Baghdad Follies: Hunkered Down With the Press Corps in Iraq, Where the Hotels Are Always Getting Bombed But At Least You Can Score Some Excellent Hash,” Rolling Stone foreign correspondent Janet Reitman portrays a media imprisoned in their heavily fortified hotels venturing out in courageous yet brief forays at tremendous risk to their lives. After the flashy headline, Reitman only briefly mentions the hashish usage: “You can buy excellent hash in Iraq. It’s one of the

Jason Reed/REUTERS

ANTI-WAR PROTESTORS AND CLERGYMEN IN CRAWFORD PRAY FOR DEAD US SOLDIERS ON AUGUST 19.

perks of reconstruction. Before the war, getting high was punishable by a long stint in one of Saddam Hussein’s jails. Now you can send an email order and have hash delivered right to your hotel room.”

Hashish, among other things, were firmly embedded in the western anti-war and media cultures that had taken up residence in Baghdad. Last summer, moments after being introduced by colleagues to a western freelancer (who a short time later was kidnapped, beaten, and fled Iraq after being released), he asked if anyone had hash with them. As I watched them all light up, including an obviously novice Iraqi smoker, I had that “rogue nerve tingling a concern” that Pitt has so eloquently coined. It was the same feeling when visiting the Baghdad apartment of western “peace workers” where beer bottles, ashes, and debris of all sorts littered the scene. They were working with children terrorized by the bombings, some of who were living on the streets with addiction problems.

In what seemed to be an exorcising of demons acquired via his experience working closely with these western foreigners an agitated Iraqi, stranded in Jordan via death threats as a result of working with them “for little or no pay,” ranted: “These peace people come looking for a good time and adventure. The women are all single because they can’t find husbands in their own countries and they are looking for an Iraqi man. Many come here and bring drugs with them that they teach our young people to use. We never had these drugs here before.

They party, they live in filth, and they are not fit for their own societies so they come here to escape.”

THE MESSAGE KILLING MONSTER All the elements of Sheehan’s “monster” were there in Crawford to “support” her: some Human Shields, members of the peace-movement party-time circus I had met in Iraq, members of the fawning left-wing media. I would venture that these folks, along with their mirror-image cadre of “naïve and/or nutty” right-wing radicals,

are a very small minority—but their antics water down and leave open for flaying the very real, very important, very necessary message that Sheehan and others are trying to air.

Messages such as those of Gold Star member Bill Mitchell, whose son Sgt. Mike Mitchell of the First Armored Division was killed in Iraq the same day as Casey Sheehan. In an interview with the Lone Star Iconoclast, Mitchell brought home the reality of his loss. “I’m sure Cindy has said it, but we know what it feels like to lose a child—to have a child killed in this war. And we are doing whatever we can to end it so quickly that no one else has to experience that same pain and devastation, the same upset in their lives.…It doesn’t so much matter whether I am out here speaking in the name of peace and my son’s name or whether I’m out camping and having a good time, when I come home to my little four walls, my son is still dead. The death of any child is a devastating event for a parent. A piece of your heart dies when your child dies. So I just want to stop this. I don’t want to hear about anybody else dying, American or Iraqi.”

The antics of the circus also drown out the much more important and true life “make peace not war” stories that can occur when someone like Sheehan takes a firm public stand. “We also met a man whose son was KIA [killed in action] in Iraq in November of 2004,” read one Sheehan quote. “He still loves George Bush and thinks we are doing great things in Iraq. By the end of the day we were drinking beer together and telling each other ‘[I] love you.’ I am telling you miracles are happening here in Crawford.”

Yes, miracles. The father who has lost a son, who loves George Bush, sits down and loves it up with Sheehan who is demanding immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq—despite the fact he thinks great things are going on in Iraq. Reporting of this sort of “miracle” wards off what columnist Solomon called, “The most promising avenue of attack,” which he said, “is likely to be the one 27

sketched out by Fox News Channel eminence Bill O’Reilly on August 9, 2005, when he declared that Cindy Sheehan bears some responsibility for ‘other American families who have lost sons and daughters in Iraq who feel that this kind of behavior borders on treasonous.’”

Two opposing sides sitting down together in a real-life peace process also neutralizes the wasteful left-vs.-right war rhetoric taking up media space. At this time, given the stakes, the loss of life, and the complexities of the situation on the ground in Iraq, this should not be a battle between the reducing labels of “pro-” and “anti-” war, no matter how lucrative this is for both the media and for fundraisers of both “sides.” More importantly, the question “Where do we go from here?” needs desperate attention and can only be answered by a coming together of minds, least we fall into an escalation of a growing violence. For now, it is only present in loud-mouthed name calling, small acts of vandalism, and worse…I have heard expressed gleeful desires for things to get worse, to fail, for body count numbers to grow—so it can be said, “I told you so.” This is supposed to be about peace after all…isn’t it?

BRINGING THE TROOPS HOME “We’re over there and we need to come home,” Sheehan said in a conference call with reporters on August 16.

“What happens in Iraq after we leave isn’t a worry of ours. We need to let the Iraqi people handle their own business.”

There is no doubt that Sheehan’s message is brave and is in desperate need of being heard. There is no doubt that she has stirred the silence. There is no doubt that she is a warrior ready, able, and willing to do battle with the foes she says lied to the American people and the world.

But her talk of immediate withdrawal does not include (nor am I suggesting it should), the very fact that there are good things happening in Iraq; that there are some very well-meaning good soldiers attempting to do their very best job to help the situation under the most egregious of conditions; that many Americans feel a strong sense of responsibility toward Iraq and her people. Many wonder “How can we pull out tomorrow without ‘fixing’ some of this horrific damage we have done?” I have traveled the US speaking at colleges, universities, and high schools, before different organizations and groups. A vast majority does not like what Bush has done to Iraq. But the feedback I get from these concerned, rational folks in the audience is that we can’t simply pullout and leave the Iraqis stranded with no security force of their own, that two wrongs do not make a right. Just as many Iraqis tell me they hate the occupation, they want the troops to leave—but not just yet.

But when? And where does the American peace movement draw the line between an earlier message of “No War Against Iraq” which talked incessantly about caring about the Iraqi people and their plight, to sending a new message that involves pulling up the tent poles in Iraq at a possibly a greater potential risk to Iraqi lives?

There is no doubt that Americans would like their troops to come home. A CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll taken August 5-7 shows that 54 percent of Americans feel

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that the US made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, and that the war has not been worthwhile. As to withdrawal of troops, 33 percent say all should be withdrawn, 28 percent say troop levels should stay the same, 23 percent say some should be withdrawn, and 13 percent say more should be sent. Sixty-four percent say the Iraq war has made the US less safe from terrorism, and 61 percent disapprove of the way Bush is handling the situation in Iraq.

The question is: When does the US withdraw troops and under what circumstances for the Iraqis? In the Bush administration’s careless and flagrant display of incompetent and disorganized power, it destroyed the Iraqi infrastructure, dismantled their security systems, and literally opened a Pandora’s box of horror while plopping down the worst of American bureaucracy in Baghdad. In mid-August I received a call from a former Iraqi interpreter-turned-IT-systems installer, whom I will call Farhad (not his real name), who was currently working in Baghdad’s Green Zone. According to him, it will be no simple Shiite vs. Sunni civil war if the troops leave. “No,” he said, “it will be much worse, it will be a war of the militias.” A war where blood will flow in even greater volume than it is now, as the different groups vying for power and control will cut “the others” down in larger numbers than in the aftermath of the first Gulf War when the first President Bush withdrew American forces and left those who had risen up—mostly Shiite thinking Saddam would be ousted—to his deadly retaliation. Not to mention the chance of violence breaking Iraq’s borders to become a regional conflagration.

Later in the month we spoke again. He said he wanted to leave Iraq. Here is an excerpt of our conversation: LT: Why do you want to leave Iraq?

F: Why? Because even if I will get a good paying job here, I am not safe. Each time I leave the Green Zone, I mention God’s name. I say, “This is the last day of my life.” I can’t just spend all my life this way.

LT: What do you think about the government in your country?

F: Which government? There is chaos here and the coming situation is going to be more serious, more tough.

The constitution is not approved by maybe 50 percent of the nation. Because there are two to three wings of the political weather. The secular one, the Islamic one, and the Federalism one. So each is pulling in a different angle, a different direction. Islamic people would like to turn this country into an Islamic one. The Kurds and some people would like a territory for federalism. The secular people hate all of this and would like to see a unified Iraq and keep a secular government like Saddam’s government, which is led by Allawi, if you remember the name—the former Prime Minister. So Iraq is on the edge now. On the edge of the cliff.

LT: Would it be better if the American troops left?

F: No. This is going to be the end of this country. Because now the struggle is political. If there will be no power to control this struggle it will be a military struggle, which

is the worst. As long as the struggle is political it is not going to hurt that much. The problem is that this struggle might grow into clashes, a military combat one. People like to seize power.

LT: Who wants to seize power? How many people want to seize power? How many different groups want to seize power?

F: [There] are a lot of political powers here. Everyone would like to seize power. [There] are a lot of political parties here. All have militias. All have power here. You know about them. [There] are maybe like 15 groups that are very powerful and organized. They have militias, they have political organizations. They are now struggling. They didn’t agree on certain drafts of the constitution. They delayed that for a week. In case they don’t reach an agreement this government will be canceled and new elections will be held. It is a big hassle.

Cindy Sheehan left Camp Casey to deal with rising family issues on August 18, but her message remains the same: “Bring the troops home now.” She has the right to demand this. But her personal, grief-driven demand does not coincide with the reality on the ground in Iraq, a country that did not ask for a US occupation but now is too far down a long, insecure, and bloody road leading to an as-of-yet undefined “freedom.” If the US withdraws immediately, there’s the potential for unimaginable violence, and possibly a larger, regional war.

So we are left with demanding questions: How and when do we bring our troops home from Iraq? What plan can be implemented to safeguard the Iraqis?

These questions also raise a more ominous unspoken question: With death after death of US soldiers—our children—who are lacking in material and numbers to do the job at hand, are more troops needed on the ground? If the answer is yes, where will they come from? This administration has shut the door to any and all help from other nations lining up to help, repeating the mantra: “we can do this alone.” Will a draft be installed? Will we allow the UN to bring in a “peacekeeping” force to replace an outgoing “occupation” force, possibly the best case scenario I can see? But most importantly, can the warriors of both sides sit down at a table and work, not fight, toward peace?

Lorna Tychostup is Chronogram’s senior political editor.

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COMMUNITY NOTEBOOK

montgomery mastodon

BY K A T H R Y N G I L L

In 1801 on a small farm in the present-day Orange County town of Montgomery, a team set out to exhume the large bones of an animal no human had ever seen.

Upon the discovery of a huge thigh bone in 1799 (18 inches in circumference at its narrowest part), rumors spread about the possibility of carnivorous monsters, capable of crushing deer and elk in their “monstrous grinders,” roaming the mostly unexplored American continent.

Finally in 1801, the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia sponsored the hunt for bones by authorizing portraitist and polymath Charles Wilson Peale to spend the princely sum of $500 on the project. Peale used these funds to lead a team of local laborers in digging up the skeleton of the unknown beast, which had been a popular topic of speculation and debate among Americans since the discovery of the hipbone in 1799. Peale also had assistance from the US Army and Navy, as President Jefferson had a keen interest in the project, hoping to make a discovery to impress Europe.

When workers completed the excavation (which was known as the First US Scientific Expedition) two nearly complete mastodon skeletons were unearthed.

“It gave the world a look at the first prehistoric creature,” says Joseph Devine, a local historian. “People would jam Peale’s museum [in Philadelphia] to look at these skeletons. You could walk up and touch it and marvel.”

The mastodon (as it came to be named) soon became a symbol of national

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pride. Explains Paul Semonin in his book, American Monster: How the Nation’s First Prehistoric Creature Became a Symbol of National Identity, “The great beast had become a symbol of the new nations own conquering spirit, an emblem of overwhelming power in a psychologically insecure society.”

Though America enjoys global hegemony at present, it was only 200 years ago that the US had virtually no stature in worldwide society. In the period following the Revolutionary War, many Europeans tried to portray America as a land not worth fighting for. A popular European myth was that a good team of British horses would lose muscle mass and height after only a few years in America. Stories like these contributed to a global anti-Americanism as well as a wounded national pride in a young, struggling nation.

The fascination with mastodons was of particular importance to our founding fathers. In fact, George Washington had made a trip to Montgomery in 1783 to view some preliminary finding of the bones before a complete skeleton was exhumed. (A fist-sized mastodon tooth—believed at first to be evidence of human giants—was unearthed in 1705. In fact, many mastodon discoveries were made throughout the region surrounding Montgomery by accident, mostly due to “farmers digging the muck out of the swamps for fertilizer,” according to Devine.)

When the Montgomery Mastodon was completely unearthed in 1801, President Jefferson used this as a bragging point about how these massive beasts existed in

LEFT: A 19TH-CENTURY SKETCH OF THE RECONSCTRUCTED MONTGOMERY MASTODON; ABOVE: CHARLES WILSON PEALE’S EXHUMATION OF THE MASTODON (OIL ON CANVAS, 1805), ILLUSTRATING THE 1801 MONTGOMERY DIG THAT EMPLOYED 50 LOCAL WORKMEN UNEARTHING THE BEAST’S BONES.

America, but not in Europe. At the time, extinction was not an accepted theory, so many thought more mastodons would be found out west. After the Louisiana Purchase, President Jefferson commanded that explorers Lewis and Clark: “Go west and find mastodons, dead or alive.”

Though the only mastodons found were skeletons, the US was soon swept with mastodon fever. One example of mastodon enthusiasm was an honorary “Mammoth Cheese” made for President Jefferson. The ladies of Cheshire, Massachusetts, gave Jefferson and his guests a unique snack—a single block of cheese that was four feet in diameter, 18 inches tall, and 1,200 pounds. The woman of the small farming community produced the cheese from the single milking of 900 cows, a huge sacrifice for such a small town. It was meant to honor the exhuming of the mastodon, which at the time was known as a mammoth.

Besides bonding Americans through their love of all that is big, the mastodon played a significant role in scientific history; it yielded the first credible statements regarding extinction. Before the mastodon was discovered, the commonly accepted belief was that extinction was impossible, because of the deeply religious beliefs that pervaded throughout America. The idea that one of God’s creatures could have disappeared from the earth was considered ludicrous, as well as blasphemous. The mastodon’s discovery was made at a time when dinosaurs had not yet been discovered and even educated people where not aware of the existence

of prehistoric nature.

The town of Montgomery earned a unique spot in our nation’s history with this discovery, and the Town of Montgomery Cultural Alliance (TOMCA) has decided to declare September 2005-06 as the Year of the Mastodon. One of the events TOMCA is sponsoring is commissioning a mural by local artist Shawn Dell Joyce, who will be working with high school students to “create a mural that Montgomery will cherish as its own.” Joyce is featuring George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles Peale in her painting, as well as current citizens of Montgomery dressed in reenactment garb.

It is apropos that Montgomery has named 2005-06 to be the year of the mastodon as the global climate echoes the mood of the world in 1801. Once again, America is experiencing global tension and rampant anti-Americanism. And, like in 1801, Americans are still obsessed with making things that are bigger and better, although the manifestation of this obsession has yielded more cars and sandwiches than fossil remains. Author of American Monster and mastodon expert Paul Seminon wisely observes, “Perhaps popular culture, a fantasy of absolute power for children and adults alike, will prompt us to take this curious skeleton in our closet more seriously and to question our own casual acceptance of that need to be reinvented if we are to give cultural life to values other than those of violent conquest and domination.”

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COMMUNITY NOTEBOOK

wind power

text and photos by jonathan d. king

As the bow crashed into wave upon wave, the six-man crew on the Elan was quickly soaked by a chilly spray of water off the Hudson. It was a cool, gray Sunday in early May with 30-knot winds and the two-to-three-foot swells gave the day an oceanic feel. A diesel leak from the engine had made the cabin uninhabitable so we were forced to brave the weather. Our clothes were soggy but our spirits were high, because it was the first day of the spring sailing season for the Kingston Sailing Club.

Barry Medenbach, a mild-mannered civil engineer from Stone Ridge is the skipper of the Elan. He is in his eighth year in the Kingston Sailing Club and his third year as Race Committee Chairman, a volunteer position that sounds sexier than it is. Imagine mediating disputes between grown men as they play with very expensive toys for nothing more than a plaque and bragging rights.

“I’m a lot better at it now, and complaints really dropped off after I required that to be acknowledged, protests must be filled out in triplicate and approved by the Committee Board and the US Sailing Association before being considered,” he laughingly said.

Sailing has its own language, and the first thing everyone learns is the designations of port and starboard (left and right). The next important lesson is that right of way always goes to the boat on a starboard tack, which means having the sail on the port side of the boat. The most tense part of any boat race is the start, as people jockey for position running back and forth along the start line waiting for the air horn from the committee boat, which referees the race. As it was early in the season, the fleet was a little thin, but many of the usual suspects were there,

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including the Elan’s two main competitors, Jammin’ and Free Verse.

“Starboard!” I yelled, announcing our right of way as we threaded the needle between two boats that veered off our course at the last moment. As the clock counted down the last 10 seconds, Jim Reynolds, a guest helmsman, timed the turn upwind perfectly, and we had a great hole shot on the rest of the fleet. The force of the high winds was too much on the 36-year-old Elan, however, and with a tremendous crack the tiller broke off in Reynolds’s hand. Suddenly, we were an 8,000-pound, rudderless vessel, crammed inbetween eight other 30-plus-foot boats all on the same tack.

Asked to describe his favorite part of sailing, Medenbach told me, “Getting out on the water, turning the engine off, and letting the wind take over. The quietness. And then there’s just you, your sails, the river, the wind and the currents.

There’s nothing else like it.” It is an undeniably atavistic feeling when traveling across water under wind power, especially considering it is the skill of sailing that is largely responsible for humanity’s spread across the planet. This river has been a major nautical thoroughfare since 1609, when Henry Hudson sailed the Half Moon as far as Albany. The Hudson River remains a shipping lane, and huge tankers are another obstacle encountered by sailors on the river. When sailing on the Hudson, one encounters an ocean current that shifts direction an hour after each tide, adding another element to the tactical considerations of each race that is as important as wind direction and speed.

I yelled to the boats on each side of us that we had no way of steering, but my words were gobbled up by gusting winds and our competitors thought I was just

gesturing and screaming in the excitement of the moment. Reynolds struggled to control the heavy boat in high winds with three jagged inches of wood. Medenbach unbelievably pulled a back-up tiller and a socket wrench out of a storage bin and started the operation of changing a tiller midrace. This is akin to having the steering wheel of your car come of in your hands, luckily having a backup, and changing it while racing in extreme conditions. Barry got the tiller attached just as other boats were beginning to tack back across the river, and we ran our leg a little longer. Our disadvantage worked out perfectly as a tactical maneuver, as the rest of the fleet turned into a heavy tidal current in the middle of the river.

All types of boats can race each other in club sailing, regardless of size and speediness through a US Sailing Association performance handicap rating formula (PHRF).

The Elan is a 30-foot racing cruiser, a 1970 Hinterholler Redwing designed by C & C Yachts. It’s a multiuse boat designed for leisure sailing and racing. It has a small cabin/kitchenette, a sleeping area, and a huge, 3,500 pound keel, which makes it very slow to get to speed, but very stable in rough seas. The Kingston Sailing Club’s fleet is comprised of 10 to 15 boats on any given Sunday. There are a few boats similar to the Elan: the swift Merit 25s (25-foot flat-bottomed race boats with a dagger keel); the Beneteau 311s (newer 31-foot racing boats that are also flat-bottomed with a dagger keel); and a pair of beautiful new 30-foot trimarans that simply dance away from the rest of the fleet. The Elan is a floating antique by comparison; competition against the faster boats is only possible with PHRF handicapping. The fleet is divided into the Spinnaker class which are larger boats

that fly a spinnaker, a large parachute-like sail that is only used on downwind legs, and the JAM (jib and mainsail) fleet, comprised of smaller boats that race with just a mainsail and headsail or jib (also known as a genoa).

The Kingston Sailing Club has a spring and fall season, taking summers off due to lack of wind and unrelenting heat. I found out why, firsthand, the second week in August, when the Poughkeepsie Sailing Club and Kingston Sailing Club held the Mid-Hudson Regatta, an 18-mile marathon from the Poughkeepsie yacht club to the rail bridge and back to Kingston. We were on the water on the hottest day of the summer, from 8am until 5pm, and four of our six crew members (myself included) succumbed to the heat and retreated to the shade of the cabin. Only our seaworthy crewmate, Woodstock artist Hera, and skipper, Medenbach, were strong all day as we plugged through to a respectable sixth-place finish.

Sailing has an exclusive reputation that won’t be helped after this summer’s movie Wedding Crashers, but is much more accessible than most people realize.

You don’t even need to own a boat to get involved. Skippers are always looking for people to help crew or for ballast (dead weight). All you have to do is just show up on Sunday morning at a skippers’ meeting (10am) at Block Park on Abeel Street and ask if anyone can use a hand. If you have a boat, even better, and everyone is welcome, because there is a PHRF for you. Gerald Cuffner, the skipper on the trimaran Gaudi, said that he just got his sons a starter trimaran for $2,000, including sails. Cuffner advised: “Do the research and get something with a decent resale value, because I guarantee once you get a boat, it won’t be your last.”

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Lucid Dreaming

BY BETH E. WILSON

Beyond Provincialism

Say the word “regional” as a modifier for the word “art,” and you’re

develop them—that is, if there was enough critical mass in the community

likely to get a certain reaction. There’s a strong connotation lurking in

to have the time and resources to allow for such expression.

that adjective, one that steers its meaning toward being something lesser,

Then there’s what happens when more worldly artists find inspiration

or not as advanced; in any event, even if it’s good, you think it ought not

in a particular place. There were the German Romantics, like Caspar David

to be really spectacular. After all, if it were world-class, wouldn’t it be

Friedrich, who became enchanted with the sublime, dizzying heights of

happening in New York?

the Alps; Paul Gauguin found a tropical groove in his travels to Tahiti

Once upon a time, this might have been a fairly accurate way of looking

and the Marquesas Islands, riffing on both the place and the indigenous

at things. Back in the day, when travel and communication were significantly

Polynesian culture; closer to home, Thomas Cole and the Hudson River

more difficult, people in particular places developed their own art and craft

School artists responded to the natural beauty of our own area (just as

traditions, cultural expressions of their own communities that often drew

the ravages of 19th-century industrialization were beginning to alter it) to

upon a shared ethnic or religious background, creating local/regional styles

produce ambitious works that were ultimately destined for exhibition—and

that34were dependent upon a fairly small pool of artists to produce and

greatness—in places like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.

CHAD KLEITSCH, UNTITLED (BLUE ARCH), 2002, DIGITAL C-PRINT

Today we live in a very different time.

confirmation of the wealth of talent that

The Hudson Valley is no longer the pristine

the Hudson Valley has attracted over the

wilderness it once represented, and, thanks

years. The group includes Eric Lindbloom of

to the modern media of television and

Poughkeepsie, a resident of the area for three

the Internet, no place is quite so far away

decades, and whose recent work continues to

from anyplace else anymore. Globalization

break fertile new ground; as well as Tim Davis

has resulted in both the danger of

from Tivoli, a fairly recent arrival who came to

homogenization, or a lack of difference

teach at a local college and immediately fell

between previously unique regions (think

in love with the region.

McDonald’s and TV newscasters), but it’s also

The diversity of the exhibition extends

created a demand—not to mention markets—

to the various media used in the work as

for more unique, localized products, from

well. While still photography, both in color

microbrew beer to community-supported

and black-and-white, makes up the bulk

agriculture.

of the show, CPW’s definition of the term

All of this gets translated a bit upside

“photographic” is fairly broad, including

down in the artworld, which has become the

Zachary Powell’s four-part video Ensori, which

home of a new, oxymoronically provincial

juxtaposes images from around the globe, as

cosmopolitanism. (Just try mentioning an

well as Olivia Robinson’s cutting-edge “new

exhibition anywhere “upstate” to a hardcore

media” interactive installation Oblivious, in

New York art type. They’re more likely to

which a sleeping, nude male reacts to the

have seen something in London or Berlin

viewer’s touch.

than anything outside the boundaries of the

Likewise, the subject matter and

five boroughs in recent memory.) The radical

approaches found in the exhibition range

imbalance of this situation is something that

widely. Lindbloom’s black-and-white

will inevitably be worked out over time,

Pinewoods landscapes focus on texture and

however. There’s just too much excellent

form to an almost abstract degree, while

work being done outside the city, especially

Angelika Rinnhofer’s rich color prints re-enact

now that rents are so outrageous there, and

a series of Christian martyrs in the style of

vibrant arts communities have formed in

Baroque paintings. Perhaps the most well-

places where a number of talented people

known photographer in the show, Barbara

have taken up residence—such as our own

Ess, has applied her signature pinhole camera

backyard.

technique to rephotographing an image of

The proof of this transformation of

an ancient ziggurat that appeared in the

“regional” into “respectable” can be seen this

New York Times, from an article describing

month in the inaugural edition of the Regional

archeological sites likely to be destroyed

Triennial of Photographic Arts on view at the

in our invasion of Iraq, bringing an overtly

Center for Photography at Woodstock. CPW

political message to the show.

is one of the regional institutions that has,

The artists in the show live and/or work in

over its 28-year history, grown to become

a territory that reaches from Beacon in the

an important piece of infrastructure for the

south, up to the Capital District in the north

artistic development of the Hudson Valley,

(which, coincidentally, almost parallels the

a major crossroads for photographers of

range of Chronogram’s distribution). Make

all stripes. In order to select work for the

no mistake: What we are experiencing here,

Triennial, nine professionals in the region—a

with such a profusion of real talent based

group that included photographers, teachers,

throughout the Hudson Valley, is something

critics, curators, and museum people, among

truly noteworthy and exceedingly special. I

others—were each asked to submit the names

predict that one day, in the not-so-distant

of three worthy and engaging photographers.

future, people will speak about our very own

From the resulting list, nine were chosen for

contemporary art scene here with the same

the exhibition, while the full group will be

longing and reverent tones once reserved

featured in the fall issue of CPW’s magazine,

for, say, New York in the ‘50s, or Paris in the

the Photographic Quarterly.

first decades of the 20th century. So don’t

The range and real quality of the work in the exhibition serve as a triumphant

���������������������

just sit around, idly wishing that you were there—because you are!

THE REGIONAL TRIENNIAL OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS will be on view September 3 through October 23 at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, 59 Tinker Street, Woodstock. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 10, 5-7 pm. (845) 679-9957; www.cpw.org.

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35

Life in the Balance

BY SUSAN PIPERATO

Kids as Commodities In its effort to create cradle-to-grave loyalty to brand names, the advertising industry spends over $15 billion a year on reaching children—from teens to infants. So far, it’s working. Kids currently determine more than $600 billion in household spending annually, influencing their parents’ purchases of everything from snack foods to cars. Susan Linn has devoted her life to fighting childrentargeted advertising as the instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, associate director of the Media Center at Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston, cofounder of the Coalition Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, and a parent and stepparent living in Brookline, Massachusetts. Linn spoke to Chronogram about her book, Consuming Kids: Protecting Our Children from the Onslaught of Marketing and Advertising (Anchor Books, 2005).

Was advertising for kids ever innocent?

It was never innocent, but it didn’t permeate everything. That’s the difference.

In 1983 corporations were spending about $100 million marketing to children on television; last year it was up to about $15 billion. The escalation began in the ’80s and intensified in the ’90s. Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood [CCFC] came about because I was doing research on marketing to kids and came across the Golden Marble Awards, the advertising industry’s celebration of marketing to kids. I thought that was horribly offensive, and that it would be a good focus for a demonstration. I called a colleague who does work on media violence and play, and my boss, a psychiatrist and activist. We decided to hold a demonstration outside the Golden Marble Awards in New York. We got colleagues from around the country to join us, and formed CCFC in 2000.

What has CCFC accomplished?

When we discovered that the United States Youth Soccer Association [USYSA] was partnering with the chemical company Chemlon and sold its mailing list of soccer players to Chemlon to direct-mail a sales pitch about pesticides to, say, the parents of Jimmy Jones, we partnered with environmental groups and e-mailed the USYSA saying we didn’t think they should renew their partnership with Chemlon—and they didn’t. When we got the heads-up that McDonald’s was going to pay rap singers to insert Big Macs into their songs, we sent out a press release and really had a significant influence on how much press this issue got all over the world. When HBO produced a television program for infants claiming that it would help children develop a positive relationship to the arts and promote family bonding, we sent out a press release that got picked up by an AP reporter; there were stories on “Good Morning, America” and “World News Tonight.” All of the sudden people were talking about the growing controversy around this issue. That’s a controversy we generated.

How have kids changed as a result of marketing?

A psychologist colleague says when he used to ask kids what they wanted to be, they would [name] a profession; now they talk about wanting to be rich, or about things they want to have. I’ve had kids coming into my office, picking up a stuffed animal, and saying, “What does it do?” For someone who cares about creativity, independent thinking, and the ability to engage in life, that’s a problem. Marketing is a factor in many problems associated with childhood today: childhood obesity, eating disorders, materialism, family stress, youth violence, and irresponsible, precocious youth sexuality.

Michael Croswell

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What do you think the next generation will be like?

We don’t know. The concern is that we’re raising a generation of kids completely dependent on screens for stimulation and soothing. We have the whole baby video scam, which is a billion-dollar business—videos being marketed to parents as educational when really they’re not. We have babies—practically from the moment they’re born—being put in front of TV. We have companies like Sesame Street creating content for cell phones.

It’s not just products being marketed to kids—it’s values. The primary value is “things make us happy.” If people believe [this], they keep buying things; when the things don’t really make them happy, they go out and buy another thing. That’s really good for corporate profits but not good for the environment. Marketing to children is about promoting waste and a waste mentality.

What can parents do to circumvent the influence of marketing and advertising?

We can’t help children struggle with marketing and advertising until we understand our own relationship to it. If we always need the latest doodad or gadget or clothing, if we’re susceptible in that way, then our kids will pick up that value. The marketing industry starts from birth by getting kids hooked on screens and branded baby stuff. So, keep babies and very young children away from screens, electronics, and media-related toys as long as possible.

Provide an environment for children allowing them to develop their own internal resources for amusement and creativity. Engage kids in the pleasures of being in the world. Make sure they have experiences that aren’t branded. If kids watch any kind of television, commercial or public, there are all these characters selling products to kids—Elmo sells junk food to kids. Tell schools you don’t want Coke and Pepsi sold there, or a McDonald’s curriculum taught, or Pizza Hut reading programs. Get kids out in nature from an early age. Getting them concerned about the environment and working for the public good are antidotes to commercialism, because commercialism doesn’t care about the public good. Commercialism is “me first.” If you’re spiritually or religiously inclined, that’s an antidote. Art, drama, making things—those are antidotes.

When you’re up against a $15-billion industry, though, it’s not a level playing field. We have to see this as a sociopolitical issue about rights and freedom—the right of children to grow up and the freedom of parents to raise them without being undermined by commercial interests.

Is the fight against marketing to kids a hopeless struggle?

People don’t know how much marketing to children has escalated and how it’s changed. We have people concerned about isolated problems—“I’m concerned about sexuality,” “I’m concerned that my daughter’s dressing like a hooker,” “I’m concerned that my son plays violent video games,” “I’m worried about obesity,” “I care about materialistic values”—but it’s all coming from the same industry. I wrote my book to help people connect the dots.

I don’t think this is a hopeless struggle, [but] these are the early days. Most people still don’t realize it’s a problem. Over the past five years I’ve seen a big change in how the media is addressing this issue, and the fact that they’re addressing it at all. At the media center, I get three or four calls a week, sometimes more, about the issue of childhood obesity—it’s becoming accepted that it’s related to marketing; the food industry is denying it up, down, and backward, but at the same time making nods to the fact that it is.

In the 1970s the advocacy group Action for Children’s Television was instrumental in getting some legislation passed that was later revoked. CCFC is supporting Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa, who has a bill to give the Federal Trade Commission back the power to regulate marketing to kids. In 1978 Congress came out and said there should be a ban on marketing to kids eight and under, [which resulted in] corporate pressure on Congress and Congress severely restricting the FTC’s ability.

Senators Hillary Clinton, Rick Santorum, Sam Brownback, and Joe Lieberman have a bill called the Children and Media Research Advancement Act [CAMRAA] to fund research on the impact of junk food marketing on children. This is a terrible political climate for any kind of legislation, so the fact that there are those bills in this Congress is pretty impressive.

Contact Judge Baker Children’s Center, 53 Parker Hill Avenue, Boston, MA 02120; (617) 2784172; www.commercialfreechildhood.org.

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37

Frankly Speaking

BY FRANK CROCITTO

What’s Going On?

Mike Dubisch

We take so much for granted. Every day we receive all kinds of things without ever recognizing where they come from. Food, clothing, and shelter barely begin to describe the endless commodities upon which we all depend. All of this comes to us at tremendous cost—and we just expect it. We don’t even think about it.

Is it possible to become more grateful? We’ve all heard parents attempt to teach children gratitude by saying “Thank you,” whether they mean it or not. At least it shows some recognition that gratitude can be cultivated. How can we teach ourselves not just to say “Thank you,” but to really mean it?

Some people start their day in the worst possible way: they crawl out of bed and turn on the TV news. Do you remember the movie Groundhog Day? Why do you think Bill Murray had to keep repeating his day? Every morning at six, his alarm clock/radio played Sonny & Cher singing “I Got You, Babe.” Talk about putting yourself behind the eight ball.

What you might consider doing instead of burying yourself in the noise of the world first thing in the morning is buying an old-fashioned alarm clock, and when it goes off, sitting up in bed and reciting the beginning of a poem by E. E. Cummings, which goes “I thank you God for most this amazing / day.” See what that does for you.

But why be grateful at all, in the morning or at any time? What is the nature of gratitude? Why should one say “Thank you”? Thank you for what?

Being grateful is the natural response to the realization that you’ve been given something. If you receive something and you realize it, thankfulness is the proper response. And in order to get something that you didn’t have, something must have given it to you—something that is not you. Thanks is always an outward expression toward something other than you.

This is what Jesus was talking about when he gave the Beatitudes. Remember the first Beatitude, “Blessed are the poor”? What could he have possibly meant?

On one level, it’s easier for the poor to recognize that what they receive doesn’t come from themselves. The original Aramaic word actually means beggar. You can see them in the Middle East to this day, coming over to you, their arms outstretched, holding their cups. When you give them something, they say “Bless you! Thank- you.” They bless you for what you give, all out of proportion to the coin you gave because you didn’t want them to bother you. This is the stance of the beggar. You know what the rich say? “Get a job. Make yourself useful. Leave me alone.”

A very different stance.

38

This is from Luke’s Gospel. Matthew goes

receiving. Someone speaks. You listen. And

a little further. He says “Blessed are the poor

not only do you hear, you understand what’s

in spirit.” In Aramaic, “in spirit,” refers to a

being said. Nothing gets in the way of your

person’s inner attitude. Jesus says this just

hearing—none of your usual stuff.

in case you think he’s talking about money.

But what stops us from being this way?

He’s talking about an inner state in which

Emotions can’t be forced or faked. Our hearts

you recognize that you are empty. If you’re

become hard, hard as stones. We’ve become

empty, then you can receive. Then you can

so filled with negative emotions such as anger,

recognize that what is coming to you is a gift,

resentment, and fear that what’s higher can’t

it’s something for which to be grateful.

seep in. The heart becomes hard when all our

-

Along with this particular Beatitude there comes this great, resounding promise: “For

emotions are about “me.” Me and my life. Me and my needs. Me and my desires.

theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Jesus isn’t

The heart softens when the emotions go

talking about when the poor die they’re

out toward others, because that’s what the

going to go to heaven. He’s talking about a

emotions are for—to connect us to others. If

different state of mind, a different state of

they turn inward, the flow stops. Nothing really

heart, of consciousness.

effective can be done by anybody so long as

The Kingdom of Heaven isn’t a place

their heart is stone. You can try to do great

“up there.” It means being wide awake. If

good in the world—give away your money,

you’re asleep, lost in dreams, then you think

work in a soup kitchen—but if your heart is

everything is your due. You never get enough.

dead, you’re just going through the motions.

Things aren’t the way you want them to be,

But suppose the heart is alive in a person

and as a result, you’re never satisfied with

and they’re serving you some soup. When

what life brings you.

they’re alive in this way, they’re adding the

If that’s your attitude, you can do all kinds

missing ingredient. That’s why you’re eating

of things. You can hurt others with impunity,

the soup—so you can get that ingredient. Call

because you actually believe you’re the center

it attention. Whole-hearted attention is what

of the universe and who else is gonna look

nourishes a person. But if the person who’s

out for Number One?

serving the soup has a stone for a heart, you

The Kingdom of Heaven is the state of seeing things the way they really are. In that

may as well be in a prison commisary for all the nourishment you’ll get.

state you see where things come from, the

If somebody does something—the

source. You trace the source back to the

smallest thing—and they do it from the heart,

Source. You realize that you’ve been given

you can’t ask for anything more. They’ve

everything, and you know the Giver. That’s

supplied everything.

the blessed state of being poor in spirit.

You’ve heard Shakespeare’s metaphor for

You’ve been given the human possibility.

life: The world is a stage. Well, this world is

Why? What did you do to merit this? Nothing

where this missing ingredient can take effect.

you can see. You just have it.

The activities we get tangled up in are just

This kind of approach leads you to a more

the plot. But what makes the play—what

and more precise understanding of your own

makes all the difference—is what’s going

life. Everything registers more specifically,

on in the heart.

more minutely, and therefore more fully.

Frank Crocitto is the founder and executive

Moment by moment we are constantly

director of Discovery Institute in New Paltz.

39

Ear Whacks

BY SHARON NICHOLS

Synthpop Flashback

Fionn Reilly

David Manley Goes Electro-Retro

I admit to being a Mac snob. And on my iBook is a delicious program called

Born in the Albany area, Manley now resides in Newburgh. He admits that

and your work is done. One of my homemade playlists—Electro Gayboy—is

his first real musical influence was Kermit the Frog, who showed the world in

packed with the danciest of dance tunes, most of them from the ’80s and early ’90s—Depeche Mode, New Order, Erasure, Dead or Alive, Yaz. So, when David

The Muppet Movie that he could cross the country, gather up some friends NELLIE MCKAY along the way, and presto! hook up with a Hollywood producer. In Manley’s

Manley’s single crossed my desk, my Electro Gayboy file did a little booty

child mind, all he needed was an open heart and a love for all creatures, and

shake all on its own, knowing that soon—yes, lord—it would be spinning the

that would be his ticket to stardom.

likes of funky “Tranny Hooker”: “Hanging on the corner with her B-cup on

Among other early names, he lists the Carpenters, Helen Reddy, Barry

/ Condom in her pocket, waiting for a John / She’s a little miss thing, she got

Manilow, Queen, Supertramp, and Michael Jackson as influences. But it was

an attitude / This little miss thing got some Jimmy Choo shoes.”

the early ’80s new wave during the tender teen years that really set things in

Sure to raise eyebrows and elicit a few laughs, this is merely the B-side to

motion for Manley—Thompson Twins, Eurythmics, Dead or Alive, Depeche

the five-song EP, So Unreal, a song that has been reworked in four ways so

Mode, Duran Duran. It seems that for Manley, things really clicked at a mam-

distinct that it hardly seems a single at all. The production is tight enough

moth Duran Duran concert, where he saw what he calls “these tiny dots

to bounce a quarter on, weaving through dark-wave techno and retro-Euro

called Erasure,” who opened for Simon Le Bon and the boys. In this group,

Pet Shop Boys vibes with sexy synth-loving Manley vocals that would make

he found a vibe that was unabashed bliss.

Prince and Alison Moyet hold hands and do a back flip.

Manley began performing in local theater productions in the early 1980s,

I was overjoyed to speak to Manley, as I immediately felt that this dude—

but he succumbed to the 40-hour workweek and set his dream aside (sound

both fresh and flashback at the same time—would join me on my previously

familiar?). He still found comfort in being a founding member and producer

established musical page. Especially after reading his bio.

of 4th Wall Productions in their first three years at Cunneen-Hackett Arts

“I totally relate to your musical upbringing,” I said. “Kristy and Jimmy McNichol? I nearly peed.”

Manley lets out a hearty laugh. “Yeah! It’s so funny, it’s one of those things that was just in the back of my mind when I was writing the bio. I was like, holy 40

cow, that was one of my early inspirations? I can’t believe it, but it was.”

iTunes (can I get a hallelujah?). It’s perfect for the slothful DJ—just hit play

Center in Poughkeepsie. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that he first stepped into a studio, putting out a call for previously written submissions to record, while collaborating on others. His first CD, Shades of Life & Love, was a first step, but it didn’t go far.

“It was a great learning experience, but

the cracks. Just the music industry itself…if

I just didn’t have the resources to get it out

something sells really well, they have to mass

there. I’m kinda glad it happened that way.

produce it with all of these clone artists, and

It’s all a process, and I wouldn’t change it for

once you have one successful boy band,

anything.”

there are so many you can’t even count. Once

Retreating into local theater, Manley

you have somebody successful like Britney

hooked up with some new folks, coming

Spears, then every record label has to have

back armed with some great tunes—Kendall

a Britney Spears. They don’t make room for

Kelly’s “So Unreal” and “Dagnabbit”—and

the different artists that are out there. I think

two fantastic producers to help him flesh

it’s better in the European market, and that’s

out the music for “Tranny Hooker.” Manley

one of my focuses too.”

briefly describes the process.

I ask Manley how he feels about being a

“I’d been encouraged to look for music

potential retro-electro god of the 21st century

from publishers that hadn’t been produced.

and he laughs. “It would feel fantastic! It’s re-

Artists in the industry these days are doing

ally opening up and becoming the next thing.

this like crazy—like Missy Elliott—and they

Everybody I’ve talked to in the industry, when

get their material from all these artistic think

I tell them I have a retro ’80s sound, they mat-

tanks. But it’s a little difficult relying on pro-

ter of factly say that’s what’s hot. I just happen

ducers to help write music. It costs when

to be jumping on the right bandwagon at the

you’re in a studio all night. We go over my

right time. When I was doing this back in 1998

lyrics and see what kind of pattern they have,

and it wasn’t hot, nobody wanted to even lis-

and they might suggest a melody and we just

ten to me. But that sound was such great stuff

go from there.” Manley currently works with

back then. There was so much drama in the

the Super Buddha production team, who

music. Totally sucked you in.”

scored the pilot to Showtime’s “The L Word.”

Manley feels that his time has come, and

He has the utmost admiration for those who

the way things have lined up for him have a

do the mastering. “It’s obsessing over every

synchronistic ring to it. “When you put that

minute detail,” he says on his blog. “Hats off

intention out into the universe and say ‘this

to those engineers who have that patience.

is what I need and would like to happen in

You all deserve medals. Imagine all the bad

my life right now,’ you just move in that posi-

music they have to sit through. Really, some-

tive direction and the opportunities present

one had to master a William Shatner album!

themselves to you. I wanted a producer just

The horror!”

like Super Buddha, and it happened. When

Manley’s “So Unreal” single was just released, and it’s been sent to national publica-

you’re ready for it, it happens. And sometimes when you’re not ready for it.” He laughs.

tions, the gay and independent press, and a

As for how he copes with it all, Manley

couple of record labels in the US and the UK.

admits to being a huge fan of therapy. “I think

He hopes to get enough sales to continue on

Bette Midler said something like ‘therapy is

album production; he’s got another handful

worth every penny because it takes more

of songs ready to hash out with his produc-

than a lifetime to figure yourself out.’ I’m to-

ers. Manley recently performed at Triangles

tally in love with that. Every time I feel stuck,

Cafe, in Danbury, Connecticut, but his

I go into therapy and become unstuck. It’s

focus is currently on promotion instead of

being able to voice all of that junk in your soul

performance.

and let it go, it starts to free you up. I’ll go to

The artist has a few thoughts about where

therapy for the rest of my life. Happily.”

the music industry has been headed and what

This is one artist whose mission in life is

it’s unfortunately left behind. “I hate to pick

to spread the love. “Not to sound corny, but

on anything and be negative, but the whole

music is about helping people and uplifting

“American Idol” thing is so homogenized,

spirits, and all that kind of groovy, positive-

bringing everything to the one common

vibe type of stuff. That’s what I’m about. I

denominator that they can spoon-feed the

hope that with success I’ll be able to help

public. And these people with all their vocal

other people. Just spreading the good vibe.

acrobatics—it’s all fine and good, and they

There’s so much unnecessary doom and

do have talent, I don’t deny that. But back

gloom, and I was guilty of it too, when I was

in the ’80s there was more substance. It was

a kid. But my God, when I saw Erasure, it to-

more about personality, about overall tal-

tally turned my world around. Like, yes! This

ent. People with different quirky voices and

is happy and it’s okay to feel this way! I want

talents could make it in the business. I think

to be part of a vibe like that.”

it’s becoming more and more difficult, and

To

purchase

So

Unreal,

visit

it’s such a shame, because these interesting,

www.davidmanley.com; you may also down-

talented people are going to fall through

load or stream MP3s of new mixes.

41

NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS

BY DJ WAVY DAVY

BLUES FOR THE BARD September 3. Calling all groundlings! The Woodstock Shakespeare Festival needs your help. Rennie Cantine and crew have nearly completed the new stage at Comeau, but are running short of finishing nails. So the Woodstock Blues gang has stepped up to lend a hand, presenting an all-star benefit at the Woodstock Playhouse. Headlining harpist James Montgomery has been burning up microphones for 30 years, and New York City-based guitarist Jeremiah Lockwood is nothing short of amazing. They’re joined by Rennie with Blue Train, featuring the town’s best bluesmen. 7pm. $20 advance $25 day of show. Woodstock. (845) 247-4007.

WWW.WOODSTOCKBLUES.COM

DRUMS & TUBA September 4. Their publicist apologized for not sending out CDs, and their myspace.com page couldn’t load the player on IE 5.0, so we still haven’t heard what they sound like. But Ani DiFranco must like ’em, as she’s set to release their third Righteous Babe album, Battles Ole, the week of this show at The Wave nightclub. For ten years the unlikely trio—Brian Wolff (tuba), Tony Nozero (drums), and Neil McKeeby (guitar)—has been rocking the free world, touring with DiFranco, Les Claypool, and Galactic. Their merch webpage describes the music as “stuffed with finely crafted, intricately structured songs that are captivating, exploratory and loads of fun to listen to.” 8pm. Call for ticket info. New Paltz. (845) 256-1717.

WWW.DRUMSANDTUBA.COM

JAZZ & ART AT SAUGERTIES September 11. What began as a humble street stage has bloomed (like the Garlic Festival) into one of the region’s best events. Juried artists of all media display their work outdoors while some of the town’s best restaurants offer fine fare. An impressive schedule of music runs all day on three stages, with: Steve Satten and a kicking line-up including Pete Levin, Mike DeMicco, and the phenomenal Sal G.; Cliff Korman and Sounds of Brazil with live samba dancing; and Latin dance sensation Alex Torres.

Bring the little ones to check out the new interactive kids’ tents. Rain date is September 18. (September 10, Arkadia Records hosts a jazz jam-session and JAS pre-party 7pm at Inquiring Mind Gallery.) 1pm.

Free. Saugerties. (845) 246-2321.

WWW.JAZZARTSAUGERTIES.COM

ELLISON STARR September 18. Dave Ellison and Gian Starr’s harmonic blend sounds like a favorite leather jacket that fits perfectly. After meeting in 1999 at SUNY New Paltz, Ellison (mandolin) and Starr (guitar) couldn’t get rid of each other, tearing up every open mic and acoustic night in town. The duo is finally getting some well-deserved attention from their fine new CD Take it With You (see review this issue.) They seem to have found a new home at Rosendale’s red-hot Alamo, with a CD-release party during the Street Festival. Catch them back again, conveniently scheduled so you can try the great grub, too. 6pm. No cover. Rosendale. (845) 658-3300.

WWW.ELLISONSTARR.COM

LOVEWHIP September 23, 24. Boston-based Lovewhip makes plenty of stops in our area, and it’s a good thing, as they are one fun band. They call their Afro-electro-dub sound “bouncehall” but it also refers to fans carooming around packed dance floors.

Lead bombshell Empress Erin and the boys bless us twice this weekend—Friday at New World Home Cooking and Saturday at Oasis Café, supporting their new CD Virtual Booty Machine. With or without the spicy green beans, Lovewhip delivers. 23: 9pm. No cover. Saugerties. 24: 11pm. $5. New Paltz.

WWW.LOVEWHIP.NET

THE AL DIMEOLA PROJECT September 24. Dimeola re-wrote the book on virtuoso guitar with his classic LP Casino (1978,) a smoldering medley of Flamenco, rock, and jazz. Hundreds if not thousands of guitar students ran back to their teachers begging to learn the warp-speed licks Dimeola threw out. His website shows a busy schedule in 2005 with one area show at The Chance, where the retro-rock vibe perfectly adorns DiMeola’s legendary wail. 7pm. $45, $32.50. Poughkeepsie. (845) 471-1966.

WWW.ALDIMEOLA.COM

42

CD REVIEWS ELLISON STARR: TAKE IT WITH YOU ELLISON STARR, 2005

It proves one shouldn’t have expectations. You see a mandolin, you think “bluegrass,” right? In Ellison Starr’s case, it’s more of a blue herring, as their mindful acoustic music repels traditional stereotypes. Of course, they’ve done their homework with carefully chosen chords in the spirit of Page or Gilmour.

Dave Ellison (mandolin) and Gian Starr (guitar) met in 1999 at SUNY New Paltz, where casual hellos led to non-stop sessions. After casting off various bands (The Whiter Side of Trash, The They), the duo became serious, writing and performing together in every coffee-den and beer garden along the Walkill. Bassist-about-town Chris Macchia led them to Leopard Studio in Stone Ridge, where together they created what producer Jimi Goodman described as “perhaps the most pristine CD ever recorded here.”

The 11 tracks drift from blue-eyed folk (featuring Starr’s husky vocals) to minor-key delirium where the mandolin ticks like a clock. The opening appetizer, “Crayfish,” has flavor, but the next several—“Leave It All Behind,” “Fading So Fast,” and “Space Ghost”—expose the CDs atmospheric confessions. Two nods to the old school are the two-steppin’ “Even in LA,” and one cover, an adaptation of the traditional “Deep Elem Blues.” Take It With You isn’t blue-, green-, or brown- grass, but a spectrum of their many moods. www.ellisonstarr.com.

—DJ Wavy Davy

JOE PIETARO: I DREAMED I HEARD JOE HILL LAST NIGHT RHODE ISLAND LABOR HISTORY SOCIETY, 2005

With a voice that sounds like the lovechild of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, singer John Pietaro leads his Flames of Discontent through Industrial Workers of the World standards and prose pieces on their new CD, I Dreamed I Heard Joe Hill Last Night: A Century of IWW Song. A union-organizer by day, Pietaro is a noted multi-instrumentalist who has performed with such geniuses as Pete Seeger and Allen Ginsberg as a tireless advocate for the dignity of working men and women (a portion of this CD’s proceeds go to the IWW).

With one Pietaro-penned exception, the newest song was written in 1917, but there’s no dusty antiquity in either lyrical substance (workers’ battles with big business) or musical style (powerful ’50s-based rock and roll with a touch of folk, country, and punk). Anchored by the transfixing melodic basslines of Laurie Towers, Pietaro’s rallying cries are heightened by a band cooking with the heartfelt passion of making kick-ass music for the masses. Between such rousing anthems as “Workingfolk Unite,” “Rebel Girl,” and “Bread and Roses,” there are three dramatic readings from IWW archives depicting workers’ and activists’ struggles.

A timely, noble work fighting the good fight and rocking what’s right.

—Dane McCauley

NICK HUMEZ: MYTH SONGS 2005 NICHOLAS HUMEZ

“Read myths,” advised Joseph Campbell. “They teach you that you can turn inward.” Thanks to Campbell, ancient myths continue to shape modern lives. But danged if many of us can remember most myths‘ strange, difficult to pronounce gods’ monikers, and complicated plots. So Nick Humez, a professor at Montclair State University, put myths to music and sang them to his student. He recently recorded 17 songs about the major players of Western mythology.

Humez’s “myth songs” range in style from calypso to troubadour ballad. Recorded at Sonart Recording Studios in Mount Tremper, the songs feature several locals: Ken Lovelett on drums and “rain wheel,” Eric Weisberg on banjo, and Pete Levin as pianist and sound engineer. Although Humez’s self-described “little ditties” are charmingly irreverent and painstakingly detailed, they lack the zaniness and edginess that makes other contemporary musical interpretations of the classics, like John Wesley Harding’s “Hamlet,” so compelling. Nonetheless, Humez manages to present the gods (“randy Zeus”) as plain folks whose actions (“Now jealous Hera drove him mad/And made him kill his kids, sir”) are easily memorable. www.mythsongs.com —Susan Piperato

43

Planet Waves

BY ERIC FRANCIS COPPOLINO

What is it about Libra?

“As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot,” opined John Lennon, who was a great man with a great woman next to him. Every astrologer has their poster children for the various signs, and Lennon is one of mine for Libra. I am not alone.

When you listen to that voice going at fullthrottle, you can feel the mind and senses behind it. Lennon was a musician, but he was also an intellect, and social critic. Yet even in his most brutally honest moments, he presented himself with style. He understood one of the most basic laws of the Western world: you can do anything you want, as long as you do it well.

Libra’s symbol is a scale. You could say it’s the scales of justice.

You could also say it’s the image of what it takes to keep the universe in balance. The implication of scales, however, is that things can go out of balance as well, or that at times, one side of an equation can push itself out and be emphasized—and this is part of the balancing process. Libra has the quality of equilibrium, but it also has the quality of excess in one direction, compensated by excess in the other.

Ask most any artist and they will tell you how important these extremes are to their work.

Scales are also used to evaluate. They are a symbol for measuring quantity that belies Libra’s real gift—that of assessing quality.

Quality is something that many Libras want in their lives, almost obsessively, and thus express in their work. Most do so organically. It’s not a learned trait; rather, it’s what they possess in their cells. There is a need to do it well, whatever it is; to do it right; and to make sure that the final result has an aesthetic appeal as well as a logical one. Libra, a member of the air sign family, is a mental sign, not an emotional one, but the world of feeling is never left out.

On the must ordinary human level, those scales may well represent the balance between the mind’s ability to think and the senses’ ability to feel and perceive. Libra does not do art for art’s sake (that’s a Leo or Pisces trait). Rather, Libra is the sign of practical idealism, which must always offer something to beauty as an aspect of its practicality. In other words, I can hear a Libra muttering something like, “If it’s ugly, it’s useless.”

When one really begins to focus this combination of values, I could see a kind of fire igniting that spreads heat, light, and creative combustion.

Emil Alzamora

But there’s a quality to Libra that’s more obvious. As the 7th sign, the sign opposite Aries, Libra is about relationships. Its existence establishes the first 180-degree polarity in the zodiac; the first mirror image or reflected sense of identity; the first opposite that comes through direct opposition. As a result, relating and confrontation, love and enmity, coexistence and judgment, are all made possible.

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However, the Sun in Libra has what is perhaps the second worst reputation of any sign in the zodiac. Blamed mainly for being indecisive (a trait that hardly afflicts Libras alone; I meet relatively few people who can actually make a decision), even Alice A. Bailey, author of Esoteric Astrology, chimes in with an insult. Basically, she says, the special thing about this sign is that there’s nothing so special at all.

But if that’s true, then how ever do we explain John Lennon? You could not say that about him. We would also need some way to account for Julie Andrews, Margaret Thatcher, and Oscar Wilde. And Chuck Berry, Lenny Bruce, Truman Capote, and E.E. Cummings.

Every sign has its outstanding natives, but Libras, particularly those who choose to express themselves, seem to be capable of morphing themselves from an ordinary tulip into the human blowtorch like few others.

They look so cute and speak so well that they blend into the scenery. Then, when needed most, or when we’re least expecting it, bam. The Beatles.

I’ve also noticed that Libra has a knack for producing worthy, notable astrologers.

Patric Walker was a Sun Libra, as is his successor, Sally Brompton. With Patric, who died 10 years ago next month, his gift was an ability to relate to his readers with a warmth and directness that many people can still feel today. Sally’s gift is one of sheer intelligence: She is clear, she knows exactly what to say, and she manages to be tactful and sharp at the same time.

Then there was Aleister Crowley, who was the great man behind the esteemed woman named Evangeline Adams, considered the “mother of American astrology.” Adams (an Aquarius Sun) was smart, a good mathematician, shrewd in business, and a better PR woman still; but she was busy, and not technically adept. Crowley, hardly a businessman but an indulgent scholar, a practitioner of Magik, and a consumer of drugs, did a lot of ghost writing for her. Two of her best books were essentially Crowley’s work, though he did not receive credit until recently.

There’s a lot of energy coming from this sign. It’s both intellectual and has creative potency; this is the nature of Venus (Libra’s ruling planet), combined with the nature of a cardinal sign—that is, a sign that commences one of the seasons. Venus rules two signs (three, if you count its exaltation in Pisces, which is revealing). There is that Taurus aspect of Venus, which is Venus reclining on her couch being fed peeled grapes, or having that natural gravitation for steadfast values, abundance, and turmoil (i.e., Bono).

The Pisces aspect is an irresistibility and anearly overwhelming power within the senses.

Then there is the Libra aspect, the one that reminds us that Venus usually runs a temperature of about 900 degrees. Being a cardinal sign provides impact and initiative. Being an air sign provides the vital quality of communication, awareness, and contact.

While Venus is the ruling planet of Libra, there’s a second ruler in the form of Saturn being exalted in this sign. This is an interesting, even curious combination, and it was not for nothing that the ancients recognized that Saturn, the master planet, the lord of maturity, limits, and structures, was associated with the sign of balances.

Crowley said that the essence of the sign Libra is the drive for justice. I like this theory a lot.

He wrote, “The disposition given by the Sun in Libra is extremely deep rooted, and if the native should feel he is being abused or imposed upon, his indignation may make him seem cold and resentful. This same sense of justice seems to underlie every trait of the native. In religion, for example, he will not confine himself to any one system, but look for the best points in all and endeavor to strike a balance between them.”

It is this same kind of mix-and-match principle Libras often use to decorate a room or cook a meal. If it works with dinner, it should also work with God. He continues, “Sometimes the delicacy of mental adjustment may be interpreted as indecision; in undeveloped types, it may really amount to this weakness. It is certain that the native will not form snap judgments; he may prefer to suffer acutely than risk injustice to others.”

If you ask me, this is because Libra is aware that others actually exist. When people are aware that others exist, they are a lot more careful about how they treat them. But this quality of relating—of putting forth some expression directly to another person—helps us understand why Libras so often can and do excel at anything that requires not only the gift of communication, but also the awareness that its main purpose is to convey love.

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Horoscopes by Eric Francis Coppolino www.planetwaves.net

ARIES March 20-April 19 What’s yours is yours, but we don’t really have what we cannot share.

Before long, that will become obvious enough, though what may be more difficult to accomplish is getting over the feeling that others have more to offer than you, and thus, they should be offering it to you. The issue is not really a material question; rather, at its essence, it’s one of loyalty.

And at the heart of that is loyalty to yourself. I suggest you take a good look at everyone to whom you pledge your devotion, and those who give theirs to you. Can you see any patterns, or can you take any messages from these situations? Is there anything out of balance—for example, your taking for granted certain people to whom you could show much more appreciation? If so, this is an easy situation to remedy; appreciation is free, but both giving and receiving it are a truly precious gift.

TAURUS

April 19-May 20

At the depths of your soul, you want someone or something. This is a quest that you’re slowly realizing you need to take within yourself, to find both the source of the desire and also the source of fulfillment. We all contain that which is our opposite. That we may see it outside ourselves is a way of aiming for it within, so we know what we’re looking for. This particular equation is playing itself out in terms of your masculine and feminine polarities, of which you’re quite aware at the moment, and which have rarely seemed more intense or poignant. I have little doubt that this is focused on something outside yourself, which is fair enough on planet Earth. Just remember to let it point you back within, to the source of your consciousness. You don’t need to keep this process secret; you just need to live it fully, admit to what is happening—and don’t stop till you reach the center of yourself.

GEMINI

May 20-June 21

You seem to forget that pencils have erasers, and that what exists in the imagination is entirely mutable. Yet you live as if your dreams are fixed entities, solid as oak. In many respects, the same holds true for your fears, which is why they seem so rigid and established. And I would also propose that this is why all-or-nothing solutions seem so reasonable; after all, if something is entirely one way, then it follows that, for a change, one would need to have it entirely another. But due to the approaching retrograde of Mars, I see another possibility opening; a space in yourself, like a secret cave with a hot fire burning down there, wherein anything is possible; where your dreams and imaginings are projected onto the wall for you to see vividly; and where subtle decisions about what you want and who you are quickly alter the images that appear before you.

CANCER June 21-July 22 The next six or eight weeks arrive with a series of turning points and moments of truth regarding where you are, and how this relates to who you are. As usual, the crux of the issue of where you call home has something vital to do with your relationships, and maintaining a sense of balance within them. The truly surprising discovery may be that you don’t have to do anything, or go anywhere, for certain long-overdue changes to AUGUST 26-28

occur. But then, Uranus in Pisces does offer a kind of worldwide lure to adventure, which you would be wise to allow a voice and take for a long run in a big field. At its essence, the astrology of early autumn is a reminder to keep your ideas about life loose, to not take the opinions of others too seriously, and to make your mark on the world where it matters most—in your own heart and soul.

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Horoscopes by Eric Francis Coppolino www.planetwaves.net

LEO July 22-Aug. 23 Your recent transition into the Saturn in Leo phase was a little like going over the great barrier reef: momentary turbulence, a sense of going farther from shore, and then the quality of the sea changed suddenly.

But you’re now pretty much accustomed to life in entirely new waters: deeper waters, with a greater sense of being on your own, responsible for your decisions, and confident that you can make actual changes in your life. A Leo is nothing without the ability to be in charge of something—and in truth this must begin with your own life. Remember this if you’re ever feeling insecure, or like the world is getting one over on you.

You are in command; yes, divine guidance is with you, but you’re the one calling the shots. This quality can follow you everywhere: relationships, work situations, and particularly living on that creative edge that clearly transcends both.

VIRGO Aug. 23-Sept. 22 It may seem a paradox that in times when you have the most, you have the most to risk and the most to lose. But it’s not a paradox at all; change would be meaningless if it did not involve a form of exchange, and some degree of risk. Progress is not just a matter of accumulation. At a certain point, one must offer oneself entirely to the process, though it helps considerably if one has a sense of self to bring to the experience. At the moment you have that if you have nothing else, which is extremely unlikely. Your life right now is like a partnership with existence in which you arrive with a portion of the assets, and life brings the rest. But until you ante up, you’re likely to be left with an idea of who you are rather than a tangible, physical sense of the real thing. And every encounter with anyone is an opportunity to do so.

LIBRA Sept. 22-Oct. 23 There’s an edgy vibe in the air, with an eclipse of the Sun approaching in your sign (exact on October 3). Eclipses are those mystical points of no return; they are like taking a ride in the cosmic jet stream. But you have every reason to feel secure thanks to protective energy that’s following you around, and has been for a long time. Consider all that could have gone wrong, but did not. Consider all the times you had a negative expectation that somehow mysteriously turned to its opposite. Consider some of the strange decisions you’ve made that somehow turned out to have no negative effect. You would save yourself a lot of energy by focusing on the most positive kinds of developments, and envisioning your life for what you want to create. If you relax a little and stop clinging to yourself, I trust you’ll find this an entirely pleasant process.

SCORPIO Oct. 23-Nov.22

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An involvement seems to be deepening. If someone has found their way into your life, they are likely to be there a while. The encounter may seem like it has its roots in the past, perhaps years ago or as deep as prior incarnations of your existence. Whatever your belief system about these things, it’s clear enough that past material will surface, and it will do so in a visible, obvious way that you can do something about. The trick—and it is a trick where human consciousness is concerned—is to remember what is yours to deal with and what is not yours to deal with. For sure, ask for help, explain exactly what you’re going through. It’s up to you to make certain this is a positive, constructive, and loving encounter; but if you have any doubts, don’t be afraid to ask the question.

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Horoscopes by Eric Francis Coppolino www.planetwaves.net

SAGITTARIUSNov.22-Dec.22 Forgive me if I’m sniffing down the wrong trail, but I keep picking up concerns about the loyalty of friends. I think your concerns, if they exist, are misplaced. It’s just that the scale of your life is shifting rapidly, and it’s natural to be attentive to matters involving boundaries and personal security. Here’s what it looks like: Certain people are about to become a lot more prominent in your life, and take on roles that you can’t control but which you really must trust. This is parallel to some kind of elevation of your own role in the world, plus some attention that’s being called to the contribution you’re making, and the extent to which this is too obvious for anyone to deny. Though they are not the “ultimate end,” there are great rewards involved, and you need to accept them graciously and move onto even better things.

CAPRICORN Dec. 22-Jan. 20 You are fast approaching your peak professional season of the year, indeed, for many years, and I have the feeling that you’ll be collecting on a lot of promises and potential that may have been eluding you for quite a while. The key will be to guide, not to push. Guide yourself with a clear vision; keep your faith in yourself high, without raising your expectations too much. You just need to trust that the right thing will come to you, because it very likely will. There are certain elements of what’s unfolding that are not exactly under your control. In a short time, the river of life begins to flow more quickly, and there are two or three key points of decision coming up. These are what you need to focus on. Not, for example, visibility, or convincing people you’re something special. They already know that. Your job is to decide—just when the moment is right.

AQUARIUS Jan. 20-Feb. 19 Despite any lingering doubts and uncertainties that seem to be emotionally rooted, you need to identify what it is you feel secure about, and work from there. One cannot really be guided by what one is unsure of; direction, at this point in your life, needs to be an inherently positive force. There’s plenty that you actually know, but too often take for granted. It’s as if all the most reassuring clues and information are lurking in the background, stenciled onto the wallpaper or written on the sides of mountains. Take a look at the scenery, and you’ll see. You’d also go a long way by making sure you’re surrounded by people who themselves are confident and who have solid values. The coming few months of Mars retrograde will put both you and them through a series of tests of the bottom line—and you’ll be glad to have found out what it really is.

PISCES Feb. 20-March 20 The past three years have not been party time. Progress time; cleanup time; focus time; grow-up time—but not a champagne cruise. You’ve earned something for your efforts and your diligence, and from what I can see, September is the month that it arrives, or at least when you get a big delivery. It’s a sign of developments to come, an indicator that there are rewards for a job well done and for effort consciously not squandered. The experiment involved involves your ability to receive, and to receive graciously. This is more difficult for you than you may be willing to admit, but you had better admit it so you can open up and let what you need come to you. Part of that is going to be taking a bigger slice of this life just for yourself, liberated from any corporate branding, prior exertions, or preexisting commitments.

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BOOMING into retirement

By Susan Piperato

Baby boomers—those people born between 1946 and 1964—have enjoyed the highest incomes in American history.

However, as growing numbers of boomers become eligible for benefits from Social Security and Medicare, and as those programs themselves undergo changes and cutbacks, whether or not boomers are adequately prepared—and preparing themselves— for retirement is being questioned by government officials, financial experts, and the press.

In 1993, when the oldest baby boomers were 47, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) first took a look at the issue of their retirement prospects. According to the CBO’s study, titled Baby Boomers in Retirement: An Early Perspective, which was completed at the request of Congress, baby boomers typically were earning more and accumulating wealth at the same pace or faster than their 50

parents had at the same age. The study concluded that boomers were generally likely to be better off in retirement than preceding generations had been.

However, the study assumed that Social Security and other government benefits would be paid as per 1993 levels—which we now know will not be the case. The study also did not estimate baby boomers’ probable retirement incomes, or address whether those incomes would be adequate to meet boomers’ retirement goals.

In lieu of revisions to Social Security and Medicare policy and resulting “looming difficulties in funding those programs,” the CBO is currently revisiting the issue of boomers’ retirement prospects.

According to the CBO’s website (www.cbo.gov),

studies reach a variety of conclusions, but most of the studies suggest that the chances of a rosy retirement for baby boomers are about 50/50.

“Most of those studies suggest that about half of boomer households are on track to accumulate enough retirement wealth to maintain their workingage standard of living after they retire as planned,” reports the CBO. “The other half of households are likely to face a drop in their living standard at retirement, especially if they retire when they now intend to. In many cases, the shortfall will be modest and can be made up through a few additional years of work. However, a substantial fraction of low-income boomer households are accumulating very few assets, and net worth among families whose earners did not

graduate from high school appears to have declined during part of the 1980s and 1990s. If current trends continue, many of those baby boomers are likely not only to face a lower standard of living when they retire, but also to find themselves largely dependent on government benefits.

Is there anything, beyond working past 65, that anyone who will reach retirement age after Social Security and Medicare changes take effect can do to prepare adequately for retirement? According to Charles E. Kirk, an individual investor, stock trader, and stock market writer whose publication, The Kirk Report, appears online daily, “The golden years won’t be so golden in the future,” but there are measures we can take to compensate.

“If what I read is true, there is ample cause for concern that Americans haven’t been saving enough for retirement and still expect Uncle Sam to step in to help them in their golden years,” says Kirk. “Unfortunately, political change in America has focused on people taking responsibility for their future well-being, instead of relying on the government. This has shifted the burden at the same time when Americans can no longer rely on pensions or retirement savings to maintain their standard of living. Chances are fairly good this trend is likely to increase for the foreseeable future.”

Today, according to Kirk, many Americans are attempting to compensate for the dwindling and possible future disappearance of Social Security and Medicare benefits by putting all their eggs in their nest, so to speak, and investing in real estate. That may work in the short-term, says Kirk, but not in the long-term.

“A few years ago everyone wanted to buy stocks and many were hurt substantially when the market failed to meet expectations,” he explains. “Now, Americans have turned toward the real estate market as the place to put their money—buying bigger homes, flipping houses or condos, or buying second homes so they can retire by the gains appreciated later in these investments. The sheer truth of the matter is that our standard of living is declining and many are taking risky maneuvers to compensate. Everything has a cycle—the stock market, the economy, and yes, the housing market. The general public has a very poor habit of timing their entrance into investments at the wrong time.”

In fact, Kirk believes that “the two mostly widely-held maxims—that the market always goes up over the long-term and that you can't lose money in real-estate”—will both “be proven flat-out wrong.”

Why are half of all Americans inadequately prepared for retirement? According to Kirk it’s because the rising costs of energy, education, housing, and health care that Americans currently face means that “retirement savings tend to be well below top priority.” But all is not lost, says Kirk, not even for folks who are having a tough time making ends meet, or who are already in their fifties. “I don’t think it is ever too late to begin saving for a rainy day or for retirement,” he says.

One reliable alternative retirement funding strategy is to buy low-cost index funds. “The simple fact is that most portfolio managers, over the long-term, do not beat the market,” Kirk explains. “In fact, most individual investors fail to just match the market’s performance. I consistently tell investors and traders that the first goal to financial and investment success is to figure out a way to just match the market’s performance.”

According to Kirk, matching the market’s performance can be achieved through investing in very low-cost funds, also known as sector-based exchange traded funds, which also “offer viable opportunities, especially for the investor who wants more active participation in the market.” Finally, he says, “owning a small, but very selective batch of stocks for the long-term—i.e., 10 to 20 years—has always been a smart approach.”

Another strategy is to establish a portfolio that earns money gradually over the long-term. Although Kirk trades for a living, he also makes sure to invest for the long-term within his individual retirement accounts (IRAs). “My strategy for out-performance is very simple,” he explains. “I have a so-called ‘lazy portfolio’ of low-cost index funds and 20 percent exposure to handpicked, long-term equity investments.”

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Free, no-obligation personal or business planning analysis Specializing in education, insurance, and retirement planning Serving the needs of individuals, businesses, and professionals Bryan K. Kaarlsen, CLU Financial Representative 550 Stony Brook Ct. Newburgh, NY 12550 845 569 1425 x125 845 569 1803 fax Northwestern Mutual Financial Network is the marketing name for the sales and distribution arm of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Milwaukee, WI, and its subsidiaries and affiliates. Financial Representative is an agent of NM (life insurance, annuities and disability income insurance). There may be instances when agents of NM represent companies other than NM or its affiliates.

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House Flipping Still a Fix?

By Susan Piperato To flip or not to flip—that is the question many retirement planners are asking themselves. Since we can no longer count on Social Security or the stock market, and the real estate market continues to be hot, buying, fixing up, and reselling or “flipping” houses, is a popular investment strategy, so much so that it’s the subject of two new reality TV shows: “Flip This House” (A&E) and “Flip That House” (Discovery Home).

Joe Belluso of Greenman Properties, a real estate and construction firm in Stone Ridge (www.greenmanproperties.com; 845-687-5266), believes in flipping as a reliable way to make money. “The real estate market will never truly bubble like the stock market,” he says, and unlike the stock market, “the real estate market is never influenced by people who flip houses. If you get in and out quick enough, slight market changes won’t hurt you, although of course world events can affect real estate like everything else.”

Belluso and his business partner and wife, Megan Park, tend to rent out most of the properties they renovate. However, says Belluso, they also take a decidedly cautious and thorough approach to renovation and resale, which is what separates “true flippers” from mere speculators.

“I’ve seen so many people who are trying to flip houses go in and lay down bad carpet and vinyl floors, and think that painting a room will hide everything, but the buyers see right through it,” says Belluso. “The point is to make it a fast turnover to make money, but a true flipper gets in and renovates.”

Trouble occurs when people are so focused on profiteering that they don’t take fully into account what it will cost to fix a house before they flip it. “Generally, you need more money than you think,” says Belluso. “You need a fat pocketbook, no matter who’s doing the construction, whether you’re doing it yourself or you’re outsourcing to a construction crew.”

Unforeseen structural problems can occur on the job, requiring extra expenditures to fix, and renovations often take longer than expected. “You might not know that it’s going to take $3,000 to pull off the old plaster lathe and replace it with drywall, or that you’ll have to replace a wooden roof that failed—like

I did once—at $50 a sheet,” says Belluso. “Plus, every month that you’re in a place, fixing it up, you’re paying insurance, taxes, utilities, maybe a mortgage and financial charges. Before you buy, you should immediately tack on a couple of months’ extra costs, just in case, because for most people, all your money is tied up in the project until you sell it. The trick is to keep things in check, and get in and get out quickly.”

The secret to successful flipping, says Belluso, is to work backward from your desired selling price. “Your effort when doing a fix-up is worth the money people want to pay on the back end. That’s why I always play a game and figure out how much money I want to make selling a house before I buy it.”

First, Belluso decides “what we want to get when we sell it and what it’ll take to get there.” It’s helpful to get a realtor’s opinion before buying, he advises, because “they can tell you things like: If you fix up a raised ranch in Stone Ridge, you won’t get $275,000 for it no matter what you do to it.”

Next, he figures out the cost of the project. “It’s good to consult a contractor and a building inspector. A building inspector will say the heater’s old, but the contractor will tell you what it costs to replace it.” Once you’ve figured out the time and materials needed, subtract that from the list price. “Then I do a spreadsheet and play with the variables; figure out the best and worst case scenarios. I do a lot of ‘what if,’” says Belluso. “Should I finance part, should I finance none? I try to make at least 20 percent total annualized profit. But if I make 10 percent over six months, the return on my investment is the same as if I made 20 percent over a year. That’s my worst-case scenario. My best case? Who knows? You can really make some money if you’re fortunate enough to find a foreclosure before it went to auction or know someone on the inside selling, or have an estate situation.”

For Belluso, the goal is always “to make more than if I played the stock market.” While he admits flipping houses can be “a fairly risky proposition,” he believes that “as long as you’re not being a speculator, you can buy and fix up and not lose your shirt over it. But, boy, be ready for those unforeseens.”

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Strip Mall Suprise

What do you do if you are the executive chef at Cripple Creek, one of the Hudson Valley’s most acclaimed restaurants, and you unexpectedly find yourself out of work when it closes down due to a lease dispute? You take the opportunity to open your own restaurant—and give it your own “twist.”

So thought the young, talented Benjamin Mauk, and that’s exactly what he did, with the help of his wife, Ellen Henneberry, who gave up a job as a Web-content manager and graphic designer at IBM to serve as the restaurant’s general manager. The couple took a chance: set in a strip mall in Hyde Park, they took an approach to quality dining more common on the car-centered West Coast than in the small towns scattered throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley. Twist opened in July of 2004, and after little more than a year in operation, the restaurant’s success seems secured by the mix of patrons who pack the place, even during the middle of the week.

You can enter Twist from its outdoor patio, which faces Route 9, or from the strip mall’s parking lot in the rear, which patrons appear to favor for convenience. A Grand Union, once the mall’s anchor store, sits closed and desolate, raising the question whether in the near future the mall will be renewed or sink into further decay. But once inside Twist, the hip, brightly colored decor and the buzz of activity wash all such thoughts from your mind. The storefront, once occupied by Coco’s Pizza, has been transformed into an invitingly upbeat space, featuring modern, high-tech ceiling lights, brown Spanish floor tiles, comfortable booths (upholstered in black and gray), and a dramatically painted interior space. A reddish painted wall provides a backdrop to the small bar area located near Twist’s rear entrance. The same color accents the white-tiled walls that surround the sizable open kitchen. The ceiling beam, painted a striking purple, adds to the drama. And if that wasn’t enough to enliven your senses, to the right of the open kitchen a large, elongated mural, painted by the Hudson artist Joseph Ferm, plays off the same color scheme to abstractly depict scenic images and elements characteristic of the Hudson Valley. This intense display of color helps detract from the mundane activity on the street that’s observable through the two large windows that run parallel to the road. The ivory-toned wall opposite the open kitchen is more subdued, simply decorated with three black, framed mirrors, hanging atop light-tan painted rectangular patterns.

The orange-tinted pendulum lights situated above the tables add a measure of quiet intimacy. This side of the room provides the dining area with a calmer, more relaxed, ambience and offers some respite from the hotbed of activity going on in the kitchen.

CHEF SPOTLIGHT

twist in hyde park

by harold jacobs photos by hillary harvey

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BENJAMIN MAUK, CHEF/OWNER OF TWIST Benjamin Mauk grew up in Minneapolis, spent a few years at Brown University concentrating in Asian studies, but then dropped out to pursue his real passion—cooking. He gained hands-on experience by working in a variety of restaurants in locations as diverse as North Carolina, Santa Fe, and the Pacific Northwest. Mauk’s raw talent as a cook became more finely tuned when he pursued formal training at the Culinary Institute of America. He graduated first in his class in two consecutive degree programs and was the recipient of a James Beard Scholarship in 2001 and a prestigious International Association of Culinary Professionals Award in 2002. In August 2003, Mauk was honored by being chosen to cook at the James Beard House in New York City to a sold-out room.

Mauk had been cooking at Cripple Creek since 1999, first under David Bruno, who acted as a mentor, and then as the restaurant’s executive chef until it closed in January 2004.

Once Mauk and Henneberry decided to go for it, they never looked back. In contrast to the formal elegance of Cripple Creek, their restaurant has a casual, neighborhood ambience with quality food and friendly service.

Central to their concept is having an open kitchen.

As Mauk puts it: “Cooking is a nurturing act. When you are in a kitchen with closed doors, your diners are a bunch of faceless people. To be able to see exactly whom the food is for and the pleasure they get from eating it changes the whole dynamic of cooking.” It is

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not only the cook who benefits from the open kitchen, but the diners as well. For an aspiring amateur chef or someone interested in the art of cooking, the best seats in the house are on the nine, high purple stools that overlook the work going on in the kitchen.

When diners are seated, they are first offered a dish of cheese twists to nibble on. They’re made with puff pastry dough, olive oil, salt and pepper, and Asiago cheese. From the first taste of these light, flavorful, and delectable twists, you begin to anticipate the possibility of a fine meal to come. When Mauk says he wants to create “good food with a twist,” he not only means he wants to put his own personal stamp on the food he serves, but also that he wants to take familiar dishes and change them a bit. An example is his version of a Caesar salad. Mauk substitutes the nutty flavor of grated Asiago cheese for the sharp tang of Parmesan and uses crisp tortilla strips instead of croutons.

Even the menu, which changes seasonally, has a twist to it. When diners choose seafood from the regular menu, they can decide how much of a good thing they want. That is, they are offered a choice of quarter-, half-, or one-pound portions of shrimp, steamed littlenecks, steamed cockles, or fried calamari with the price varying accordingly. Steaks come with a twist as well. One has a choice of three types: a 16-ounce Cowboy Steak, a 10-ounce NY strip, or a 10-ounce filet mignon, grilled to your preference, accompanied by your choice from among four starches, five vegetables, and four sauces. In

other words, you put your own dish together according to your inclinations and Mauk and his line staff cook and handsomely deliver it to you. The special satisfaction that comes from eating a nicely grilled steak, accompanied by the side dishes you prefer, makes beef lovers feel at home in this restaurant.

Mauk’s version of contemporary American cuisine emphasizes multiethnic ingredients and bold, clean flavors. His appetizers include a lobster salad made with papaya, tomato, and enoki mushrooms, drizzled with a champagne vinaigrette and garnished with a red-pepper coulis. The succulent, bite-size pieces of pink and white lobster marry wonderfully with the golden-yellow nuggets and exotic, sweet-tart flavor of the papaya. The natural acidity of the tomatoes balances the dish while the pleasantly mild taste of the white hairpin-shaped enoki add texture and a visual element of interest. Another appetizer, the crab and corn quesadilla accompanied by an avocado and tomato salsa, uses seasonal ingredients that are at the height of their flavor. But in that regard, a Tuscan-inspired rustic Panzanella salad, offered as an appetizer special, made with a variety of heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil, and hearty country bread, dressed with an excellent olive oil and wine vinegar, takes the idea of garden freshness to its fullest realization. Mauk also offers as appetizer specials a tuna tartare with sweet bell peppers, sesame oil, and spiced crackers, and duck confit spring rolls with mango ketchup. The latter appetizer, in particular,

shows off Mauk’s creative talent and his ability to draw on a diversity of culinary styles. The duck confit that fills the spring rolls is a specialty of Gascony, France, while the light, crisp, delicate spring rolls, made of paper-thin pastry wrappers that enfold a savory duck filling, originate in China. The presentation is simple but striking to behold: three small spring rolls stand erect on the plate, which is decoratively dotted in three places by a thick, spicy ketchup exhibiting its brilliant golden-orange mango base.

Twist’s signature dishes include seared sea scallops with a lobster cream sauce. Sweet, luscious, creamy pink sea scallops are pan-seared in olive oil to produce a golden brown crust and then seated on a bed of mashed potatoes. A fragrant lobster cream sauce speckled with baby green peas encircles the mashed potatoes, while the thinnest shoestring potatoes are stacked on top of the scallops to provide texture and an architectural lift to this sensuous dish. One evening, entrée specials included a grilled horseradish-marinated swordfish accompanied by a warm cucumber-wakame salad, marinated Japanese eggplant, and miso mustard. Wakame, a seaweed with a delicate texture and flavor, goes especially well with fish and is often added to salads. This Asian-fusion dish plays off the salad ingredients and the purple-skinned, marinated Japanese eggplant slices against the spicy horseradish marinade and miso mustard garnish. It is testimony to Mauk’s skill that the many complex flavors that are layered into this dish come together in mouthfuls of harmonious flavor. During the dinner service, Mauk takes personal responsibility for grilling the protein, whether it be fish or meat, and he takes pride in cooking it precisely to the degree of doneness requested. Two people at my table ordered the veal chop special, one asking for it rare and the other medium rare, and in both cases it was perfectly cooked to their preference. In this dish, Mauk places a thick, beautifully glazed, tender veal chop over white truffle mashed potatoes. A medley of crisply cooked summer vegetables with chanterelle mushrooms lie alongside the veal chop, itself topped with a roasted shallot jus.

In addition to all of his other culinary feats, Mauk makes all of Twist’s intoxicating desserts. His offerings include a lemon curd placed atop a raspberry sauce, with almond macaroons served on the side. The silky smooth curd, with its bright tangy flavor, partners beautifully with the naturally sweet raspberry sauce. The macaroons, infused with the slightly bitter taste of almond, are crispy on the outside and lightly chewy-sweet on the inside, echoing the play of flavors in the dessert itself. While this dessert provides a light, deliciously refreshing way to finish off a meal, the chocolate chip cookies with Twist’s vanilla ice cream are decadent to the core. Mauk makes a chocolate chip cookie with flavors that are deftly balanced and texture that’s both soft and crunchy. He uses generous amounts of Callebaut chocolate, made from the highest quality cocoa beans available, which makes all the difference. He serves two of these warmed, oversize cookies with the chips just on the verge of melting. A scoop of homemade, pale-yellow vanilla ice cream wonderfully complements them.

Salads and appetizers average around $8, entrées around $22, and desserts are $5. Henneberry is Lunch - Thursday thru Sunday responsible for selecting the wine list. Her intent is to make accessible to people “something new Dinner - Tuesday thru Sunday and different to taste, but something that is also moderately priced.” She further points out that the restaurant “offers a lot of wines by the glass because we know that a lot of food lovers like to pair their wine to the dish they are having, and I love to be able to help them do that and introduce them to something they have not had before.” Twist’s international wine list contains numerous bargains of carefully selected bottles priced in the $20 to $40 range, with a good selection of wines by the glass averaging around $8.

Recommended examples of a white and a red wine, available by the bottle or the glass, that fall on ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������������������ the lower end of this price range are a Viognier, La Violette, Jean-Luc Colombo, Languedoc, France, ����������������������� ����������� 2003 ($8/glass, $22/bottle), and a Malbec, Terra Rosa, Laurel Glen Vineyards, Mendoza, Argentina, ������������������������������� ������������������ 2003 ($9/glass/$23 bottle). The Viognier derives from the northern Rhone appellation of Condrieu ��������������������� in southwestern France. It is a fruity wine of medium body with a hint of peach and apricot and a ��������������������������������� touch of spice. It goes especially well with Asian infusion dishes or any dish with which you would �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� drink a Chardonnay. Malbec, one of the traditional “Bordeaux varietals” with characteristics that ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� fall between a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot, is the major red varietal planted in Argentina.

The ������������������������������������������������������������������������ Malbec offered at Twist has a soft, lush structure with touches of plum and anise flavors. It goes well ����������������������� with beef and other meat dishes. ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������������������ ����������� Don’t be deceived by the less-than-desirable location. Twist offers innovative, contemporary ����������������������� ����������� American cuisine, skillfully prepared and artfully presented by one of the Hudson ������������������������������� Valley’s most ������������������ ������������������������������� creative chefs. ������������������

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TWIST 4290 Albany Post Road (Route 9), Hyde Park, NY, (845) 229-7094 Open Tuesday-Saturday, dinner 5pm-closing, lunch 11:30am-2:30pm; open Sunday dinner �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� through Labor Day. Reservations are accepted only for parties of five or �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� more.

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tastings directory BAKERIES

RESTAURANTS

The Alternative Baker

23 Broadway

“The Village Baker of the Rondout.” 100% Scratch Bakery. Stickybuns, Scones, Muffins, Breads, Focaccia, Tartes, Tortes, Seasonal Desserts featuring local produce, plus Sugar-free, Wheatfree, Dairy-free, Vegan, Gluten-free, and Organic Treats! Cakes and Wedding Cakes by Special Order. We ship our Lemon Cakes nationwide, $30 2-pound bundts. Open Thursday-Monday 8am6pm; Sunday 8am-4pm. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Well Worth The Trip! 35 Broadway, at the historic waterfront district, Kingston. (845) 3315517 or (800) 399-3589. www.lemoncakes.com.

A wine-friendly bistro with creative Mediterranean cuisine. Chef Rich Reeve has developed a menu featuring Spanish tapas, fine steaks, fresh seafood and pastas. In a restored historic building with exposed brick walls, brass-top bar, and a glassenclosed, temperature-controlled wine room. This is a casual (cool spot) with (big, bright, bold flavors), Zagat rated, and a CIA destination restaurant (SoHo and Kingston). Dinner Wednesday through Sunday; Brunch Sunday. www.23broadway.com 23 Broadway, Kingston. (845) 339-2322.

CATERING Blue Mountain Bistro Catering Co.

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On and off-premise catering. Sophisticated Zagatrated food and atmosphere in a rustic country setting - wide plank floors, rough hewn-beams and a stunning zinc bar. Chef-owner Erickson’s Mediterranean cuisine has garnered praise from Gourmet and New York Magazines to Hudson Valley Magazine (Best Tapas in the Hudson Valley 2004).1633 Glasco Turnpike,Woodstock, NY 12498. www.bluemountainbistro.com.

(845) 679-8519.

Claudia’s Kitchen Personalized celebrations and weddings, using fresh local ingredients to create delicious and elegant menus. Homemade artisanal breads, Hudson Valley cheese, fabulous appetizers, meat and vegetarian entrées, out-of-this-world desserts.

Claudia works one on one to custom design your menu, your party, your wedding or special event.

(845) 868-7338 or (914) 475-9695. www.claudias catering.com.

Pad Thai Catering Delicious, affordable, and authentic Thai cuisine served with authentic Thai hospitality to your group of six or more. Lunch or dinner served in your home by Chef & Owner Nuch Chaweewan.

Please call (845) 687-2334 for prices and information.

DAIRY Bobolink 42 Meadowburn Road, Vernon, NJ 07462. nina@cowsoutside.com.

Now open: “The Area’s Finest Indian Cuisine.”

Open seven days a week with $7.95 lunch specials and $6.95 take-out boxes. BYOB. Open for Lunch: 12-2:30pm and Dinner: 4:30-10pm. Saturday and Sunday Brunch: 12-3pm. Buffet Dinner on Wednesdays: 5-9:30pm. 5856 Route 9 South, Rhinebeck, NY. (845) 876-7510.

Aroma Osteria 114 Old Post Road, Wappingers Falls, NY 12590.

(845) 298-6790.

Bacchus Celebrating our 28th Year! Enjoy creative cuisine with seafood and Southwest specialties in a casual, relaxed atmosphere. Offering a full salad bar; over 300 varieties of bottled beers, 13 on tap, plus a full wine list. Open Daily. Lunch 11am-4:30pm; Dinner 4:30-10pm. Weekend Brunch, late-night menu, and takeout available. 4 South Chestnut Street, New Paltz. (845) 255-8636.

Beso Located on Main St. in the heart of New Paltz is Beso, formerly The Loft. Spanish for “kiss,” Beso offers casual fine dining by owners Chef Chadwick Greer and Tammy Ogletree. Fresh, modern American cuisine, seasonally inspired by local Hudson Valley farmers. Get cozy in the intimate dining room under skylights and glowing candlelit tables, or sit at the bar for a more casual experience. Housemade pastas like Acorn Squash Raviolis, Hazelnut Crusted Halibut, or Braised Beef Short Ribs. And for dessert, Maple Mascarpone Cheesecake.

Private parties, families, children welcome. Open for Dinner 5pm-10pm, 5pm-11pm Fri & Sat, closed Tuesdays, Brunch begins in August. (845) 255-1426 or website: www.beso-restaurant.com.

HOME MEAL DELIVERY

Catamount Waterside Dining & Bar at Emerson Place

Healthy Gourmet to Go

Located near Phoenicia and Woodstock, Catamount Waterside Dining & Bar is a great place to experience the beauty of the Catskills while you enjoy mouth-watering food. Dine Waterside and take in the vistas provided by the Esopus Creek and Mt.Tremper as you choose from a menu that includes right-off-the-grill steaks, chops, chicken and fish, homemade pastas with delectable sauces, several dinner-sized salads, and irresistible desserts. The “Cat,” as locals call it, has a full bar including local micro-brews and international wines that can be taken out onto our streamside patio.

Join us for dinner & cocktails for a fun and relaxed atmosphere that is children friendly. 5368 Route 28, Mt. Tremper, NY 12457. We are currently open for dinner 5:00 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

Panoramic views are also the signature of wed-

(845) 339-7171.www.carrottalk.com.

See Vegan Lifestyle in the Whole Living Directory.

PASTA La Bella Pasta Fresh pasta made locally. Large variety of ravioli, tortellini, pastas, and sauces at the factory outlet.

We manufacture and deliver our excellent selection of pastas to fine restaurants, gourmet shops, and caterers throughout the Hudson Valley. Call for our full product list and samples. Open to the public Monday through Friday 10am to 6pm, Saturday 11am to 3pm. Located on Route 28W between Kingston and Woodstock. (845) 331-9130. www.labellapasta.com.

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Agra Tandoor Restaurant

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Attention Retailers!

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Hometown Snacks Hudson Valley Distributor Sunbird Snacks Offers High-Quality trail mixes, quick turnover, high profits, & More! - All CALL 845-452-3441 www.mistersnacks.com

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dings and banquets, featuring a beautiful outdoor pavilion. For reservations call: (845) 688-2444. www.emersonplace.com.

Catskill Rose Restaurant Four-star dining and catering in a comfortable and elegant dining room with antique art deco bar plus gorgeous gardens and outdoor dining. Chefs and proprietors Peter and Rose draw on years of creative experience to prepare the familiar and comforting to the classical and innovative. Soups and desserts made in-house from scratch. Route 212, Mt. Tremper. (845) 688-7100. www.catskillrose.com.

Cosimo’s on Union Ristorante & Bar The most unique modern Italian Restaurant in Orange County, featuring wood-fired pizza, gourmet Italian pasta dishes, and other specialties from our open-air kitchen. Homemade Desserts, Espresso, Cappuccino, Full Bar, Party Rooms on request. Private Wine Cellar Dining; New Expansion; On- & OffPremise Catering; Highly Rated, Zagat’s; Award of Excellence, Wine Spectator; Winner, Best of Hudson Valley 1994-1998; “5-Star Service”–Poughkeepsie Journal. Union Avenue, Newburgh. (845) 567-1556.

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The Emerson at Woodstock Now open! The Emerson at Woodstock brings two inspired dining experiences to historic Woodstock.

Ricks’ Bistro celebrates Woodstock’s agricultural past with hearty, wholesome dishes in a casual, laid back setting with a jovial bar serving the area’s best local beers, regional wines and created cocktails.

The Riseley Room continues the culinary traditions established by the Emerson Inn. Guests enjoy an intimate, elegant setting as they savor meals created

by Executive Chef Michel Nischan, a James Beard Award winning author and guest chef on “Oprah.”

Open Tues.-Sat. Call for reservations. (845) 679-7500 or www.emersonplace.com.

home. Hickory also features several vegetarian options, steaks, homemade desserts, happy hour specials, a complete take-out menu, and catering and special events in our private dining room. You can enjoy live music featuring the area’s hottest bands on Friday and Saturday nights. Open daily for lunch and dinner. 743 Route 28 (3.5 miles from NYS Thruway Exit 19). (845) 338-2424. www.hickoryrestaurant.com.

The Hoffman House Located at the corner of the Stockade District in uptown Kingston, the Hoffman House is a National Historic Landmark, which during the 1600s served as a lookout for marauding Indians canoeing up the Esopus. Today, you can enjoy relaxed dining as you warm yourself near a soothing fireplace in winter or outside on patio in summer. Take a step back in time as you dine in one of Kingston’s oldest stone houses and savor the cuisine and service that the Hoffman House has been providing to their customers for over 27 years. Open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner, 94 North Front Street, Kingston.

(845) 338-2626.

Joyous Café Is it any wonder that Joyous Café is the most exciting new eating experience in Kingston? Whether it’s Breakfast, Lunch, or Sunday Brunch, the wonderfully prepared food and attentive service are outstanding. Open Monday through Friday 8 am - 4:30 pm Saturday 10 am - 2:30 pm and Sunday Brunch 10 am- 2:30 pm. Serving Dinner evenings of UPAC events. 608 Broadway, in The Heart of Broadway Theater Square, Kingston. (845) 334-9441.www.joyouscafe.com.

Kyoto Sushi 337 Washington Ave, Kingston, NY 12401.

(845) 339-1128.

Luna 61 The French Corner Routes 213 West and 209, Stone Ridge, just minutes from Kingston. Experience Chef Jacques’ menu, which features recipes using ingredients from his native Franche-Comte, France, combined with fresh seasonal products from Hudson Valley farmers. The French Corner dining room and bar are decorated with antiques and artifacts from Eastern France.

Families and children are welcome, private dining room available. Dinner Tuesday through Sunday and Brunch Sunday. Closed Monday. (845) 687-0810.

“Best Vegetarian Restaurant.” –Hudson Valley Magazine. “Food is simply delicious, four stars.” –Poughkeepsie Journal. “Imagine spicy Thai noodles, delicate spring rolls, and the best banana cream pie you’ve ever eaten. Join the Culinary Revolution.”

–Dutchess Magazine. Luna 61 is relaxed and funky, candlelit tables, cozy, and romantic. Organic wine and beer. Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday: 5-9pm.

Friday and Saturday: 5-10pm. Now Accepting Credit Cards. 61 East Market Street, Red Hook, NY 12571.

(845) 758-0061.

Gilded Otter

Machu Picchu Peruvian Restaurant

A warm and inviting dining room and pub overlooking beautiful sunsets over the Wallkill River and Shawangunk Cliffs. Mouthwatering dinners prepared

by Executive Chef Larry Chu, and handcrafted beers brewed by GABF Gold Medal Winning Brewmaster Darren Currier. Chef driven & brewed locally! 3 Main St., New Paltz. (845) 256-1700.

The only authentic Peruvian restaurant in Orange County, NY. Family owned and operated since 1990.

Serving the community traditional dishes from the mountains and coast of Peru. Trained in Peru, our chefs make authentic dishes come alive. Wine list available. Serving Lunch and Dinner Sunday through Thursday 10am-10pm and Friday and Saturday 10am-11pm. Closed Tuesday. 301 Broadway, Newburgh. (845) 562-6478. www.machupicchu peruvianrest.com.

Hana Sushi Best authentic sushi in the Hudson Valley! Superb Japanese sushi chefs serve the best authentic sushi with extended Dining Area. Sit at the counter or tables and enjoy all your favorites from Chicken Teriyaki and Udon to Yellowtail and Special rolls. Eat-in, take-out, and private room is available. Hours: Tuesday-Friday Lunch 11:30am-2:30pm. Monday-Thursday Dinner 5-9pm. Friday Dinner 5-10pm. Saturday Dinner 4:30-10pm. 7270 South Broadway, Red Hook, NY. (845) 758-4333. www.hana-sushi.com.

Main Course Four-star, award-winning, contemporary American cuisine serving organic, natural, and free-range Hudson Valley products. Open Lunch and Dinner Tues-Sun, & Sunday Brunch. Wed and Thurs nights, food & wine pairing menu available. Voted “Best Caterer in the Hudson Valley.” 232 Main Street, New Paltz. (845) 255-2600. Visit our Web site at www.main courserestaurant.com.

Hickory BBQ Smokehouse Located on historic Route 28 between Kingston and Woodstock, Hickory offers diners Hudson Valley’s finest barbecue and smokehouse cuisine such as ribs, pulled pork, smoked beef, fish and free-range chicken. Whether enjoying your meal by the fireplace in Hickory’s three-star dining room or sipping a cocktail at the wood bar, Hickory’s staff is trained to make you feel as comfortable as you would at

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Marcel’s Restaurant Casual and comfortable dining, warm country inn atmosphere. Price range $13.95 - $32.95. Now offering daily 4-Course Prix Fixe specials starting at $15.95. House specialties : Pate Du Jour, Duck Laprousse Grand Marnier, Coquilles St Jaques, and Filet Tornodos. Marcels is proud to announce it is celebrating 33 years of fine food and service. Check

out our web site for our seasonal menu@marcelrestaurant.net or to check the date on our next jazz night. We have a complete take out menu, and catering is available. We have also recently added a vegetarian menu and a young guest menu. Our hours of operation are Thursday-Monday 5-10pm. Sundays 3-9pm.

Located at 1746 Route 9W, West Park, NY. Call (845) 384-6700 to place an order or to make a reservation.

Mexican Radio 537 Warren St, Hudson, NY 12534. cpmljs@ecoipm.com.

(518) 828-7770.

Neko Sushi & Restaurant Voted “Best Sushi” Restaurant by Chronogram readers and rated four stars by Poughkeepsie Journal. Serving lunch & dinner daily.

Eat in or Take Out. We offer many selections of Sushi & Sashimi, an extensive variety of special rolls & kitchen dishes. Live lobster prepared daily. Parking in rear available. Sun.-Thurs.12-10pm; Fri. & Sat.12-11pm. Major credit cards accepted. 49 Main Street in the Village of New Paltz.

(845) 255-0162.

Osaka Japanese Restaurant

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Want to taste the best Sushi in the Hudson Valley? Osaka Restaurant is the place. Vegetarian dishes available. Given four stars by the Daily Freeman. 8 Garden St., Rhinebeck. (845) 876-7338 or (845) 876-7278. Visit our second location at 74 Broadway, Tivoli.

(845) 757-5055.

Pastorale Bistro & Bar Eat up, Dress down, in this hip country bistro. High quality, sophisticated cooking that could fit in anywhere says the New York Times. Serving updated bistro classics in a 1760’s colonial. Bar with signature cocktails, lively ambience. Tuesday-Saturday dinner. Brunch & Dinner on Sundays 12-8pm. Summer Patio. Private dining for up to 50. 223 Main Street (RTE. 44), Lakeville, CT 06093. (860) 435-1011.

Plaza Diner Established 1969. One of the finest family restaurants in the area.

Extensive selection of entrees and daily specials, plus children’s menu. Everything prepared fresh daily. Private room for parties & conferences up to 50 people.

Open 24/7. 27 New Paltz Plaza, New Paltz. Exit 18 off NYS Thruway. (845) 255-1030.

Roasted Garlic at the Red Hook Inn Elegant environment, comfortable atmosphere, internationally acclaimed chef/owner, the Red Hook ‘Country’ Inn, located in the heart of historic Red Hook/ Rhinebeck NY has it all. This 6 room Federal style colonial, built

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in 1842, offers guests a walk back in time as they enjoy modern amenities including luxury bedding, linens, jacuzzis, fireplaces and wireless internet. The dining room at the Inn, ROASTED GARLIC, features a mixture of French, American and Mediterranean menus with a focus on flavor and affordability. Meet Chef Nabil Ayoub and Hostess Patricia Holden as you enjoy charm, exquisite cuisine and warm hospitality.

Soul Dog Featuring a variety of hot dogs, including preservative-free and vegetarian hot dogs, chili, soup, sides, desserts & many gluten-free items prepared in-house. Open for lunch Mon-Fri 11am-4pm. Redefining the hot dog experience!

107 Main St., Poughkeepsie, NY. (845) 454-3254.

Springtown Green Grocers A delicious mix of homestyle cooking and friendly service. Meat and Vegetarian Dishes prepared fresh 7 days a week at our hot table.

Grab & Go! M-F, 7:30-7pm, Sat 8am-7pm, Sundays, 9am-5pm.

Route 32S, Rosendale, NY 12472.

(845) 658-3164.

Wasabi Japanese Restaurant 807 Warren Street, Hudson NY, 12534. Open 7 days a week.

(518) 822-1888.

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BISTRO & BAR “High quality sophisticated cooking” – The New York Times

Tel. 860.435.1011 Dinner Tuesday – Saturday Sundays – Brunch and Dinner Lakeville, CT.

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ing l Pric Sp e c i a e d d i n g s f o r W e Gr o u p s ar g and L

CHRONOGRAM 70

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JAPANESE RESTAURANT OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 518.822.1888 807 WARREN ST. HUDSON, NY 12534 518.822.1128

LUNCH Mon - Sat 11:30 - 2:30 DINNER Mon - Thurs 4:30-9:30pm Fri & Sat 4:30-10:30 Sun 3:00-9:30

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www.divisionstreetgrill.com

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GLASS BEACON HUDSON BEACH GLASS

“G

lassmaking is somewhat like dancing,” says artist John Gilvey, coowner of Hudson Beach Glass. In 1987, John and Wendy Gilvey formed Hudson Beach Glass with another couple, Michael Belzer and Jennifer Smith, to craft and sell functional and sculptural objects from their studio in Beacon. “While my wife holds the torch, I hold the glass rod. Our movements have to be absolutely coordinated.”

In addition to the two couples, all four of them artists, the Gilveys’ sons are also involved in the business. Sean creates handblown drinkware and lighting, while Luke creates sculptural objects for the Hudson Beach Glass store and other retail shops. Luke also cofounded the Beacon Firehouse Gallery, with Roger Ricco of Ricco/Maresca Gallery in Chelsea, which showcases photography, sculpture, and outsider art on the second floor of the 1890 brick firehouse that Hudson Beach Glass bought in 2001.

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photos by

hillary harvey

FIRED UP

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ilvey cannot repress his enthusiasm for Beacon and the old brick firehouse that Hudson Beach Glass purchased in 2001. He and his partners, along with the Gilveys’ sons, have worked hard to renovate the building, and their work is not over. The first floor, with the retail gallery and demonstration studio, is done. The second floor, housing the Beacon Firehouse Gallery, is almost complete. The third floor, with panoramic views of the Hudson and Beacon’s Main Street, has yet to be tackled.

“In 1890, when the firehouse was built, it only had two stories,” says Gilvey. “The third floor was added in 1906. It was used as a bar for the firemen. The guys would sit around, looking at the beautiful view of the Hudson and up and down Main Street, and wait for a fire.” (The firehouse’s hose company was decommissioned in 1980, and for a few years, the building was used by a group that provided social services and operated a soup kitchen.)

Gilvey and the other Hudson Beach Glass owners have been made honorary members of Lewis Tompkins Hose Company #1, the volunteer company that once occupied the building. The company has loaned a carved wooden mantel from the original firehouse to Hudson Beach Glass, as well as an old black-and-white photo of the original fire engine and Ben, the horse that pulled it. These relics can be glimpsed in the back room of the retail shop.

Today, instead of fighting fires, the building’s occupants use fire—in the form of a blazing furnace—to melt glass and create their product.

On the first floor of the building, located on Main Street in Beacon’s West End Historic District, are the demonstration studio and a large, bright retail store where Hudson Beach Glass objects and the work of about 25 other artists are sold.

Servingware, plates, vases, perfume bottles, and jewelry can all be found, along with one of the items that the Gilveys create together: a paperweight that depicts a sinuous mermaid draped across a globe, peering through the transparent water at the vibrant, teeming world below.

When John Gilvey and Belzer first met, it seemed unlikely that they would ever become business partners. “I was an instructor at Buck’s Rock,” says Gilvey, referring to the performing and creative arts camp in Milford, Connecticut. “Michael was a camper. Over the years, we stayed in contact, but that was about all. Sometime in 1983, I was in the shower room of my gym, waiting to take a shower. A door opened, and out walked Michael.”

Benzer and Smith had moved from Rochester to Beacon to make glass tiles, and the Gilveys had their home and studio in Poughquag—neither had realized they were only about 20 miles apart. Four years later, Hudson Beach Glass was born.

Today, the company employs about eight other artists to help create items that are sold in the Beacon store, international galleries, gift shops, and catalogs.

Many of the pieces are sold in destination shops (retail outlets in areas where people take vacations or have second homes), and they adhere to what Gilvey calls a “beach aesthetic.” There is the nautilus salad plate, with the repeating pattern of the shell; the jellyfish lamp, with a lovely, irregularly shaped edge; and the octobowl. They come in colors like amethyst, topaz, sapphire, and peridot, and in two finishes: beach, which is sandblasted and oiled to mimic sand-tumbled glass, and jewel, which retains its original shine. All of the handcast objects, such as the

plates and bowls, are crafted in a separate Beacon location.

Hudson Beach Glass also makes more abstract modern pieces. One is a small bowl balanced on a tripod. “Before Michael came to Beacon,” says Gilvey, “he was digging around in a dump in Rochester, where he found pieces of steel used for grinding lenses. He used a piece to press a small glass bowl.” Gilvey took the bowl to a trade show, where he met a woman who owned a gallery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. “In one part of the booth, we had Michael’s grooved tiles. In another part, we had the bowl. The woman placed the bowl on a tile, and she said that she wanted to buy the two together.”

The woman had created the set she wanted, and Hudson Beach Glass was happy to supply as many as she needed. Later, John Gilvey added a divot in the tile to keep the bowl from slipping off. Then he created a different base for the bowl by pouring out glass into a “puddle” and putting a divot in that. The bowl and puddle sets were sold to high-end stores, including Bendel’s and Neiman Marcus.

Consumers are encouraged to participate in more ways than one. At a retail store, a consumer can select the colors that make up a set of three “water” serving bowls (the name “water bowl” does not refer to a vessel filled with water; instead, it is patterned after sand that has been rippled by receding seawater). A customer can nest a small sapphire bowl inside a medium peridot bowl, and set the two of them inside a large topaz bowl to create an object with fresh visual appeal. Other Hudson Beach Glass objects can also be designed this way, with consumers given a choice of 14 colors.

Gilvey has seen clients spend hours trying to decide the combination of colors and sizes. “It makes them feel like they are part of the creative process.”

Hudson Beach Glass: 162 Main Street, Beacon; www.hudsonbeachglass.com.

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DESTINATION KENT

BY KATHRYN GILL

PHOTO BY JASON KREMKAU

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Kent, Connecticut, can easily be called a day-tripper’s dream.

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Starting with the drive from the Hudson Valley, the easy, 60-minute jaunt through some of the most scenic routes of the New York and Connecticut countryside begins a traveler’s day right. However, once in Kent, it is the collection of anomalies that make Kent a unique and exciting find for those wanting a new experience.

Kent has been described by many as a place where nature meets culture, and the adage is definitely true. It is both highbrow and low profile, where hikers from the nearby Appalachian Trail can enjoy a beer at a local bar in their outdoor gear, or tourists seeking what’s new and trendy in the art world can purchase a painting at the world class Paris New York Kent art gallery.Mother-daughter duo Annette Spallino, of Maryland, and her daughter Marie, of New Jersey, chose to visit Kent because it was equidistant between their respective homes. An avid hiker, Marie had become aware of Kent because of its proximity to great trails, but was delighted to find the town also offered a myriad of other distractions. Relaxing on one of the park benches that line the main street of the town (there is only one stoplight and one main street—though many attractive side streets tempt the visitor), Marie and Annette sipped on water bottles after a long day of strenuous exercise—shopping, that is. Annette was surprised by all the shops in a village of only three thousand full-time residents.

A Kent fixture is the enormously popular Toys Galore & More which was described by proprietor Patti Leo as a “tried-and-true mom-and-pop shop, with just mom.” Leo, who has run the business for 16 years, says the community of Kent has always been receptive and supportive of her. The mother of two grown children, Leo says she had the benefit of two bona fide toy testers in her own home. “They loved having a mom who was a toy story owner,” said Leo, reminiscing. “That is, until they were teenagers. Then they wished I owned a Gap,” she added with a laugh.

The vibe of the stores in this village is handcrafted, however, rather than massproduced. Ellen Corsell, of Heron American Crafts, said her degree in education from SUNY New Paltz later informed the aura of the store she now runs. Corsell, who moved to Kent in the ’70s, which she called “the heyday of the craft movement with the rejection of corporate America,” says if you like shopping in her store, it’s probably because she likes working there. The popular boutique boasts colorful and funky pottery and jewelry, as well as an assortment of greeting cards and gifts.

Another Kent storefront that has been a fixture in the town for 35 years is Foreign Cargo, owned by mother-and-son team Olga and Jeff Kennedy. The shop started as a hobby of Olga’s, whose husband was a public health worker in East Africa and the Pacific islands. In the seventies the Kennedys moved to Kent, and Olga used her knowledge and ties to foreign lands to build a shop of art and antiques from Asia and Africa. The store, which son Jeff describes a collection of “eclectic wares of cultural fusion,” draws customers with its unique clothing, jewelry, and wearable art.

Those looking for the literal taste of another culture will think they’ve died and gone to heaven at Belgique, a chocolatier housed in an old, yellow Victorian house at the beginning of town. Though it opened just three years ago, the sweet

destination

shop has already garnered an extremely strong reputation in the tristate area, with some patrons traveling 90 minutes out of their way to stock up on chocolates for the week. Owned by husband-and-wife team Pierre and Susan Gilisen, the shop offers an array of must-try treats for the serious choco-holic, such as handmade ice cream, sorbets, baguettes and breads, and duck foie gras from Perigord, France.

For those who believe the mountain is always clearer to the climber from the plain, Kent’s Macedonia State Park offers Hudson Valley residents an opportunity for reflection, as the Blue Trails across Cobble Mountain offer outstanding views of the Catskill and Taconic mountains. The park boasts 2,300 acres, and exciting terrain that has resulted from the slow wearing down of its hard rock base.

Hikers can easily find a spot to camp for the night at one of the park’s 51 camp sites. A smaller, but equally stunning venue is the Kent Falls park. Kent Falls has its beginning in the town of Warren, draining an area of almost square miles. It then flows west to the big fall where it plunges approximately 70 feet in a dramatic waterslide. Visitors can wander across the covered bridge, hike the falls, and feel the mist on their face, as water cascades 250 feet down on its way to joining the Housatonic River.

Whatever you do in Kent, there is always a bucket of bubbles waiting outside Toys Galore & More for visitors who need a break. “Bubbles have a universal appeal,” explained owner Leo to me as I left the store. And so, it seems, does Kent.

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8WWW E-Libris Rare Books “We are such stuff as bibliopsychoses are made on.” www.chronogram.com/subscribe

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Sixteen syllables missing; remaining one illegible. 10 million yen

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state points, including the exceptionally rare “curved ph’hxl’l” illustration. Some pages stained by Romulan emissions.

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CHRONOGRAM LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 2005 Here and there in the Catskills and Hudson River valley, you’ll come across a place name that reflects the occupation of those who settled there: Tannersville, Quarryville, Cementon, Grant Mills and DeWitt Mills, and Saugerties, the village of the sawyers. But you will scan the map in vain for Writersville, or Scribestown, or Bardstock. While it is true that writers in this region are as plentiful as deer, day lilies, and mosquitoes, they do not cluster in any one nook or cranny; rather, they drift, like literate spores of milkweed, and propagate, willy-nilly, in colonial city and forest cabin, riparian hamlet and remote hilltop.They are a hardy and variegated lot, and what they pen, type, or otherwise output is every bit as rich and diverse.

This Chronogram Literary Supplement hopes to echo that richness and diversity. Edited

by Mikhail Horowitz and Nina Shengold, it features

fiction, poetry, personal essays, book reviews, cartoons, and short humorous pieces by writers of every stipple and persuasion: old pros and promising rookies; the celebrated, the soon-to-be-celebrated, and the defiantly obscure. The editors take particular joy in noting that these gifted writers, while representing the full range of Chronogram’s circulation area, comprise the merest fraction of the gold in these har hills.

FICTION CONTEST WINNERS The response to our 2005 Short Fiction Contest was tremendous. We received more than 60 stories, from which Chronogram staffers chose seven outstanding finalists to send to our guest judge, Quills Award nominee (for The Ha-Ha) and Columbia County resident Dave King. The winning stories, Carol Bugge’s “The Kite” and Brent Robison’s “Phoenix Egg: Three Vignettes,” appear in this issue. Look for more finalists, including Jack Kelly’s Honorable Mention winner, “One Mississippi,” in upcoming issues of Chronogram.

PERSONAL ESSAYS: “ONLY CONNECT” Five brief memoirs reflect on E. M. Forster’s famous dictum, “Only Connect.” Although reading and writing are quintessentially solitary pursuits, many passionate readers and writers find ways to connect through the written word. Here, Casey Kurtti describes a long-running book club that meets in a federal women’s prison; Greg Correll brings us inside a hands-on writers’ group whose participants write together every week; Nina Shengold recalls a life-changing theatrical experience; Phillip Levine shares his love of the eternally open mike; and Mary Louise Wilson unearths a hidden conclave of rural Proust enthusiasts.

Illustrated by linocut artist Carol Zaloom.

LITERARY LIFEBOAT If the unsinkable ship Literature rammed an iceberg in the North Atlantic, what books would be spared?

A first-class compartment of local literati decides which to rescue and which to throw to the sharks.

Illustrated by New Yorker cartoonist Danny Shanahan.

ARS POETICA Poetry Editor Phillip Levine assembles

a bevy of poems about reading and writing.

BEST REVIEWED BOOKS Books Editor Nina Shengold rounds up

a posse of the year’s best local books, as reviewed in The Book Shelf.

THERE YOU HAVE IT. READ ON. 81

PHOENIX EGG

THREE VIGNETTES BY BRENT ROBISON ILLUSTRATIONS BY JB LOWE

Brent Robison’s “Phoenix Egg: Three Vignettes” is a small marvel of form following function. Comprised of a trio of mostly private scenes, the sum here is manifestly greater than the parts, for by story’s end the reader finds the canvas broadened and entirely public. Equally impressive is the author’s stylistic versatility and control of a highly ambitious voice. The first of Robison’s three vignettes is cast in the terse, tough language of a police procedural; the second as a kind of hallucinatory spirit dream; and the third seems—Brent Robison uses the very word—every inch a prayer. Tricky stuff, skillfully executed. —Dave King

CABIN

Tony feels a needle-twinge of new guilt, a little spike in the ever-present hum, as he lies to the friendly young woman in the jewelry store.

“It was a gift,” he says. He shifts his weight and swallows.

“It’s really beautiful.” For a better look at the object on the glass countertop, she leans closer to him. “It’s just too bad about the damage here along the edge.” She points with her pinky, the elegant, tiny nail polished a pale mother-of-pearl.

Tony just stands there, silent. He judges himself deficient in all social skills after three months alone in his cabin. What a far fall from the glib talker he’d once been, back when life was flashy and brutal. He used to say to himself, I am three things, and three things only: Italian. Catholic. Cop. Now, he knows he’s much, much more, but he can’t quite put a finger on exactly what.

Tony has left his old life behind. His wife had asked him for a divorce just before the century turned, citing something she called “patrol car widowhood”—the streets of Staten Island and the loud crew of shoulder-punching guys at the 120th Precinct had become like the air he breathed every day. The court date came and went, and he marched forward, day in, day out, noble and empty-headed, numb and duty-bound, until on a bored and angry whim in the dark of winter, he volunteered for a stint at Fresh Kills.

He had grown up in Arden Heights with the stench of that vast landfill in his nostrils every day. But now it was different. Everything in the world had changed.

He donned white coveralls and a respirator with some 499 other NYPD, FBI, and civilian workers to comb the endless debris from the towers.

Something went deeply wrong inside him. He felt it as a slow, relentless crum82

ble. He was falling to pieces himself in the face of that eternal stream of broken things—objects touched and owned by permanently absent persons, and then, then, the occasional fragment of human flesh and bone, at first unrecognizable, until, with a horrible rush of awareness, so very familiar.

Standing at the conveyor belt he might, at any random moment, feel a sudden choke and a surge of hot tears, and go through terrible struggles to maintain composure behind his mask, surrounded by men. It was in one of those moments of disintegration that he focused on a tiny object, plucked it up, slipped it into his glove, and pressed it with manic energy against the flesh of his palm until he could breathe evenly again. He held on to the thing, and at the end of his shift, he did the unthinkable—he smuggled it out of the compound in his boot.

Days later, before the great task came to an end, Tony quit the force, sold his Mustang to buy a used four-wheel-drive pickup, put his possessions in storage, arranged for his sister to rent out his house for a percentage, bought a truckload of supplies, and moved to a tiny cabin deep in the Catskills.

His grandfather had built the hunting cabin before Tony was born, but the family had rarely used it since the old man died. The one-room log structure and its surrounding 20 acres of forest on a mountaintop had languished in the far back of Tony’s mind—something to consider in the distant future, but never, until that spring day, rising to a present concern.

He spent the first week in hard, sweaty labor, making the cramped, decrepit four walls into a livable shelter. Holes in the roof and one window. Door hinges rusted shut. Layers of mouse shit on the shelves and counters. Spiderwebs thick on

everything. Mounds of bat guano in the outhouse. He used up his entire bottled water supply and had to lug refilled jugs up a hill from a little rocky creek below.

The second week was entirely different. Finally, he just let it all go, releasing his own trembling walls to the relentless gravity of his inexplicable emptiness. He broke down, utterly. He sobbed and drank and smashed things and drank some more.

He vomited on the floor. He lay for days in a naked, drunken stupor and found himself one midnight staring at his own candlelit reflection in a window, with the barrel of his .38 revolver in his mouth. Through his fog, he comprehended that this was a point of no return, and he made a decision. He flung open the door of the cabin and threw the pistol with all his strength into the black forest.

The third week, he began to mend. He slept fitfully, but long. He bathed in the creek. He took lengthy walks through the fresh piney woods. He organized his tiny abode. In the bottom of a box he came across the one-inch piece of tarnished metal and crusted stone that had been the catalyst for his change—that thing once possessed by someone whose family would never see them again. That thing for which he would always be guilty.

He began to take trips every other week into the nearby village of Margaretville, and on the first such venture, he picked up silver polish and a library card. Soon the stolen pendant gleamed in shades of silver and gold, the egg-shaped stone showing glimmers like hot coals in its red-orange depths, offset by filigrees of cobalt and violet. It leaned against the rough-hewn log wall on a shelf, next to a candle in an ancient baby-food jar.

He began to read. Mutely following the librarian’s lead, he started with Thoreau and Emerson, then moved on to an astronomy text and a biography of Beethoven.

He tried Dante and sampled Kierkegaard. He worked his way through novels by Dostoyevsky and Marquez and poems by Eliot and Rilke. He struggled with Stephen Hawking and laughed at Mark Twain. He studied the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao Te Ching. He devoured Rumi. He read in a half-broken chair under a tree by the cabin door as the dapple of leaves inched across his pages; he read by flickering candlelight deep into the night.

His dark hair and beard grew long and thick until the day he saw the woman in the little antique shop and jewelry store. Back at the cabin, he carefully trimmed them until he deemed himself respectable, if a bit bohemian.

He had been looking at the jewelry in the window that day to see if anything resembled his pendant; he wanted to identify its stones, maybe even its maker. But now he had another reason to come back, walk right in, and ask. There was just one problem—for weeks and weeks, he had not had an actual conversation with a human being. He didn’t believe he could still do it, or was even worthy to try.

But he also felt that he had so much more inside himself to say than he had ever had before. He was both exhilarated and scared. And, at the same time, thoughtful, as if observing someone not himself. The woman behind the jewelry counter was part of this confused and fluttery jumble, but there was much more to it than that. It was connected to other, deeper things, scars new under his old skin, the marks of a bitter evolution.

Now, she studies the pendant as she speaks. “I think I can answer your question.…This central stone here? That’s a fire opal. Most likely from Mexico.”

Again, she points with her small, pearly nail. “These delicate inlays around it are lapis—that’s the blue—and sugilite—the purple. Of course, the setting is sterling silver, and these accents are, I’m guessing, 14-karat gold. It’s a really excellent piece of work.”

Tony feels an urge to say “Thank you,” but then realizes that would be absurd.

So he says nothing, just clears his throat and breaks out in a sweat.

She looks at him a moment with eyebrows raised, then smiles—an offer of aid.

“Were you wanting an appraisal? Or considering selling it?”

“No. No. Thank you.” Tony scoops up the pendant and starts to turn away, but forces himself to stop. He’s succeeded at one part of his mission—the naming of the stones; now, he’s not going to let himself fail at the other. With a deliberate motion, he turns back to her and says, “Thank you, you’ve been very helpful.

Can…may I ask your name?”

She tilts her head so that one auburn lock of hair swings free from behind her

ear. A smile plays at a corner of her mouth, and her eyes dance with something he’s sure is a laugh—a laugh that, he now sees with infinite gratitude, holds not even a hint of cruelty.

“Sure,” she says.

When she tells him her name, he realizes suddenly that he is able to rise to any occasion. No matter what the future may hold, he’ll be just fine. For the first time in memory, Tony feels certain he is standing on the bright, dangerous brink of an actual future.

STORM The wide river lay black as oil under the oily black sky, mirroring in an up-ended smear the hard glittery stacks of knife-point lights that formed the hulking, glassy shape of the city. Hard corners jutted up mean like cubist biceps, slamming pumped and gleaming against the onyx sky where no stars could survive the infernal blaze of electric fire to hint at a world beyond that of men.

The Navajo jeweler veered the rented minivan to the narrow shoulder of the elevated highway and stopped. His wife, who came from a freckly line of Irish redheads and was a painter of big expressionist canvases on which vivid western landscapes seemed caught in a fiery dance, put her hand silently on his. With their three copper-skinned kids, whose eyes were wide and black, wider and blacker now on this midnight than ever before, they sat without a sound and stared across the dark rim of New Jersey at the dazzling mirage that was Manhattan.

Out of their small city on the high desert and across the gigantic twist and fold of crust that holds peaks and prairies and vast fans of river drainage and endless migrating storms of dust blown by big winds, all that flatness and unremitting dark that is called America, they had flown, all of their feet for the first time leaving the bony stone surface of home, so that their toes felt the absence and curled in their five sets of shoes, all together as one, family-style, and now they perched on the edge of the continent, come on a pilgrimage to look for a new home in the city at the center of a different world. The art world.

The man and his wife shared dreams. Their dreams were of a home in a place where all humanity’s beauty and grace were gathered, a place where the very air pulsed with creation and the very light of day hummed with the energy of fine and fantastic invention. Where the dull and the narrow were outnumbered. Where the spirits were kindred. Where their children’s minds could grow both sharp and open. Where he could push his work far past tradition into new bold worlds of shape and gleam and hue, where she could be inflamed by the gritty and muscular foreignness of everything in sight until it poured through her onto the canvas. And where the universe would at last show its appreciation.

They stared at the city. The man brushed one long black lock from his forehead.

He remembered a line from Neruda: Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes.

No one said a word. He pulled into the traffic, traffic that even at midnight was heavier than he’d ever seen before. In 10 minutes they were under the bedrock, under the real skin of this land that was covered and covered again with new skin and newer skin of tar and gray slab and grime and they were under the river that had flowed down from the ancient glaciers since before the first white-sailed ship, since before the first canoe, and still flowed slow and wide, pouring its endless waters into the sea. When they rose up out of the tunnel, the kids all began speaking at once and the little van became a capsule of chattery noise so noisy they didn’t hear the low steady rumble, the low pulse and hoarse whispery roar of some wild beastly heart that pounds and pounds and wills itself to go on pounding somewhere there in the darkness, deep under the glittery, cracked, and filthy pavement.

It was spring when they arrived, the first of the new century. Now it was spring again, and a storm was approaching. It was that first day of the year warm enough that all in the city could be finally sure, once again, that the slate-dark clouds advancing from the west would eventually bring flowers rather than the sting of wind-driven ice or the heavy snow that so fast turns as gray as the streets it falls upon. The Navajo jeweler felt the air change with the oncoming weather as he strode down Broadway, feeling good, feeling tall, feeling the cash in his pocket.

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He had just delivered one of his best pieces ever—a new design he named Phoenix Egg for its stone and its silver swirl like a wing or a flame—handed over with pride and gratitude to a guy in a coffee shop on Eighth Avenue in the Twenties.

Now, as he walked, he was thinking, thinking hard, stepping strongly, loving the feeling that his own rhythm was, at this moment if not always, so in tune with the city’s rhythm. But there was a shadow, and it wasn’t just the coming storm. As his thoughts became clear, he slowed and stopped.

Recently, late at night, his wife would cry. He would say, “Let’s try a little longer.”

He knew it was an old story. Things were piling up: The foul air in the print shop where he spent his long, numbing days. Her sore feet from waiting tables part-time.

The rent. The galleries that returned their slide packets unopened. The perpetually plugged plumbing. The tears of their children as each, in turn, was bullied. The scattering cockroaches. The street fairs where overdressed ladies haggled his price down, then walked away. The shit smell of the subway station. The weapons in school. The galleries that would be so very glad to hang their paintings for a fee of only $5,000, paid in advance. The fights of the neighbors, too vicious even for Spanish to soften. The rent. The evil gangsta attitude his second son had adopted.

The rat on the windowsill. The store that went bankrupt and disappeared overnight, along with his work. The galleries, all the white and clean and shiny and irrefutably inaccessible galleries. The rent. The dead body in a doorway up the block.

“Let’s try a little longer,” he had said.

The storm approached, and then it arrived. It broke over the great city on the island and it was as though the tallest spires were flinty lances piercing the underbelly of the sky and ripping the soft gray hide, as if the sky were a hunted animal, as if the sky were offering itself up to death and rebirth in some vast turning, and then it rained.

Rain poured from the wounded sky in rivers standing up, water running down the misty air like it ran down the concrete walls and stone walls and glass walls and walls of brick that stood up straight all this way and that with hardly any space between, as crowded as the skinny piñons with two-inch trunks in their thick stands on the mesa where it’s everything vertical and no undergrowth and where no deer can ever be tracked. Water fell in cascades with no air between the drops, with only liquid streaming and splashing down so you’d expect to see pink-bellied salmon climbing their inexhaustible climb toward home, toward a home of blue sky somewhere above the muffling fur of cloud; but there were no salmon here. The rain flowed down the air and down the walls and beat the ground and splashed up away from the ground, this ground that was no ground but a floor, and it spread itself wide across the hard flatness and dark crown of sidewalk and street and it swirled into pools at every corner and eddies at every curb and it took on the grimy charcoal color of all the surfaces it flowed across, washing them clean, and it turned the city into a glistening delta, all rivulets and channels that moved like a tangled traffic of wet things and wet music, right and left and north and south searching for a route, the water like all water hungry for a low place, crosstown, downtown, under the town, on a race through dark tunnels and drains where nothing is alive, and pouring and pouring with a great slithery sigh into the big slow rivers that do nothing but flow on and on and empty themselves so generously into the sea.

When the storm let loose over the city, the Navajo jeweler stood on the corner where he’d been standing all the while the clouds were lowering, and he never moved except to close his eyes and raise his face to the rain. Under the pounding gray waterfalls, faceless figures dark as slate ran bent with their eyes to the pavement and their shoulders hunched and their umbrellas and newspapers and clutched hats making a rushing chaos all around him, him in the eye, in a storm of frantic flutter not at all like the big grace in the wide sweeps and turns and ripples when the swallows lift as one over the desert cliffs into the clear empty glow of twilight.

It rained and rained, and when the flood began to thin, finally he opened his eyes. He breathed deep the bright washed air, the green living smell that the rain could bring, miraculously, even here. He felt a huge and sad love for the place where he stood and for all the sad and struggling others in all the sad little cubes stacked around and above and scattered in their endless grid out to the far edges of the city, all those less fortunate than he, with no place beautiful to go. He knew that finally

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the day had come and, turning, he descended dripping into the subway. At Clinton Street, he climbed the three flights slowly. He entered their small apartment, kissed his wife, kissed each of his three children, and then they packed their bags.

MORNING Helen’s mind is not on business. It’s on a pinpoint, a potential, a something so microscopic it’s more a nothing. In her center, it hums.

Every morning there is this settling in, the transition from the crush and chaos of the street, subway, elevator, to the solitude of her office. The solitude that will last a precious three minutes before it gives way to another crush: the focus of work, the pressure of duty. She punches the power buttons: monitor, then computer.

She toes off her sneakers, still tied, and slides them with a nyloned foot under the desk. She’s not yet ready to put on the heels, the “torture-pedics” she calls them, so she stands in stocking feet looking out the window, a Starbucks cup still in her hand. Decaf, because it’s better for the ovaries.

She had woken before the alarm, in the still black time, and climbed out of bed without waking Daniel. His schedule was out of sync with hers; a dark gulf had opened between them. Daniel was deep in the final act of the novel he’d taken a year off to write, and often stared blankly into space, his lips moving slightly.

Sometimes in conversation with her, midsentence, his eyes would glaze, his focus wander. Only rarely could she get him to let her in, and then he’d turn suddenly manic and pace the room, arms waving, acting out scenes in dialogue, changing voices—a villainous basso profondo, a girlish falsetto—and if it was a good day they would simultaneously realize the absurdity of this picture, and dissolve into laughter. Other times, a black silence would descend.

But as his novel had grown, so had an irrational need in her, from somewhere deeper than she’d known before. Even this junior broker job she’d worked so long for, that had finally netted her these actual walls and a window, could fade away, and she could smile to see it go. Sometimes this was alarming, but less and less so.

This morning, in the glow of the night-light in the bathroom, she had done her monthly test. She peed on the little plastic strip, on the Urine Collection Pad, holding it gingerly by the ergonomic Thumb Grip, then watched for the lines to appear in the Results Window. Yes—today could be Ovulation Day. Normally—the last three months—she would have waited until evening to take the next step, but this morning she felt a vague hormonal insistence that sent her back into the bed, naked, next to Daniel. She caressed him, and then it was as if their bodies took over.

It was quick but good, better than it had been in a very long time. At first, just blind, urgent fumbling. Then in the dim light of dawn his eyes opened, clear, and locked to hers. The prodigal ecstasy returned, the inexplicable merging, the goodness that was pain just too sharp and sweet to bear. She melted, lost in him and in all of everything. After they came together and he kissed the tears that ran down to the pillows from the corners of her eyes, she knew that these were the moments of her life that most closely resembled prayer.

Now, she hears the beep and whir of her computer booting up. She drains the cup and stretches a long yoga stretch. Hand on her chest, she feels the pendant that hangs under her blouse, against her skin; the gift from Daniel last May for their fifth anniversary; the glowing egg shape that she knew was his unspoken way of empowering her inner alchemy with a magic amulet. She’s sure, yes, quite sure she feels the tiniest buzz in her belly: excited cells, busily dividing. She takes one more long look out the window at the view she loves: this incredible city spread out below, with its goddess gazing down with overflowing tenderness from the 93rd floor. And somewhere in that far tiny tangle of roofs that may be Chelsea, her dear Daniel is just waking up, and now sun glimmers on both the big rivers, and the graceful bridges are like toys, and the city seems impossibly silent and peaceful.

This is a moment that is almost like flying. And way out there to the north there’s a plane approaching, just a bright little dot in the cloudless blue sky.

Brent Robison is a multimedia writer/producer who also runs Bliss Plot Press (www. blissplotpress.com), publisher of the regional literary journal Prima Materia.

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THE KITE

BY CAROL BUGGE

ILLUSTRATIONS BY VLADIMIR ZIMAKOV

Here’s a variation on a theme writers will never get tired of exploring: parent and child, both on the cusp of something, whose diverging experiences reflect and illumine each other.

Carol Bugge’s “The Kite” spells out the father’s conundrum deftly, with an intriguingly original premise (B.F. Skinner!) that generates a sly, systematic satire of male midlife crisis.

But the story’s heart is the son who senses what he can’t yet truly know—and who translates his understanding to the lovely, metaphorical context of their shared kite-flying expeditions. The son’s final resolution is as subtle and suggestive as his father’s is blatant, and Bugge handles both with grace, vigor, and sensitivity. —Dave King

When I was nine years old, my father decided to rewrite history. Not history in the sense of this country or that, but his own personal history. He entered a kind of Lifestyle Crisis (as opposed to a Midlife Crisis or an Identity Crisis, both of which were popular at the time). Moreover, his move was predicated on theory rather than on personal need: He wanted to test the extent to which any individual was capable of demonstrating free will. It all started when he read Walden Two by B.F. Skinner, that cold-blooded proponent of conditioned responses in human beings. My father was a history professor at the small private fine arts college in our northern Ohio town and had assigned the book for his “Twentieth Century Intellectual Traditions” course. The course title was sufficiently vague to include just about anything my father chose to put in the syllabus, and he used to broaden his own reading by assigning books he “had never read but always meant to”; Walden Two was one of those books. My father found the book and its author appallingly evil, and made a vow that spring to devote his summer to disproving the book’s “arrogant, spiritually void premise.” And so he set out to methodically and radically alter his own “thoughtlessly entrenched lifestyle.”

He began with politics. A lifelong Republican, he began reading Marx and Lenin and became one of the few Ohioans in history to subscribe to the Village Voice, which he read every Sunday, locked up in his study with a pot of tea and his pipe, which he chewed rather than smoked. He questioned the nature of capitalism at cocktail parties filled with practicing Republicans. Eventually my parents were invited to fewer and fewer of those parties. At one of the last my father attended, at the Worthingtons’, he argued so vehemently in favor of socialism with a local industrialist, George Miller, that Miller threatened to cancel his grant to my father’s college. This failed to stop my father, so Miller pushed him into the deep end of the Worthingtons’ kidney-shaped pool. However, Miller was such a large and badly coordinated man that he lost his balance and went in after my father. Mrs. Worthington, being the ultimate hostess, promptly jumped in too in an effort to put her guests at ease, whereupon the rest of the guests leaped in one by one, caught up in the spirit of the moment—or perhaps they did it out of fealty to their plucky hostess.

In any event, the scene as described to me by mother was like something out of a Jerry Lewis movie: Fifty or sixty inebriated Republicans heaving their soft, mayonnaise-fattened flesh out of the Worthingtons’ pool, breathing heavily at poolside, water dripping from their thinning, matted hair. I envisioned these same Republicans pulling up at gas stations and stoplights all over town, their expensive clothing already beginning to shrink or run in rivulets onto their plush velour car seats.

Mrs. Worthington called my father the next day to thank him for helping to create such a memorable evening. Mr. Miller was not so forgiving, however; that year he really did cancel his contributions to my father’s college. This saddened my father, but he remained unchastened. Fortunately, the president of the college refused to believe Miller’s contention that my father had pushed him into the Worthingtons’ pool. In spite of his philanthropy, Miller was regarded as somewhat of a crank at the college. Once, stricken with hepatitis and believing he was on his deathbed, he confessed to an affair with one of the faculty members—a small, timid English professor named Wallace Stripple—but Miller recovered from his illness and was condemned to live down his own confession. The faculty and administration had a wonderful time with that one for weeks; there was even a

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George Miller memorial garter belt passed around at opening night of the senior class musical. Nobody thought to make fun of Wallace Stripple; he was such a harmless, inoffensive little man that people only felt sorry for him.

Another front on which my father decided to make a break was the domestic one. His father had never so much as washed a fork, and my father seldom set foot in the kitchen. Part of this had to do with my mother’s incredible efficiency. She had little patience with his method of dish washing, which involved meticulously scrubbing and rinsing every piece of silverware, whereas my mother preferred to scoop huge handfuls of spoons, forks, and knives from the hot, soapy water, rinse them in bunches, and plop them onto the dish drainer as she breezed by to wipe off the counters.

After weeks of badgering, my father finally talked my mother into allowing him a “kitchen night”—so it was agreed that every Monday night he would clear the table and do the dishes. This job would take my mother about 20 minutes with my “help.” (I was a pretty ineffective dish washer myself, but I had a list of chores that were expected of me, mainly for the purpose of “building my character.”) On my father’s kitchen night, however, my mother and I were not allowed to set foot in the kitchen. This 20-minute task routinely took my father well over an hour.

First he would clear and “organize” the dishes into “categories”—silverware, china, etc., and then he would carefully wash each one, changing the soapy pan of water each time he changed categories. My mother cooled her heels in the living room doing crossword puzzles or reading Agatha Christie. She refused to read Walden Two, calling Skinner “a lunatic fringe writer who will sink into merciful oblivion where he belongs.” I usually went to my room when my father was doing dishes because he would always turn on the radio and listen to rabidly loud classical music.

To this day I cannot hear the Eroica symphony without the accompaniment of rattling dishes in my mind.

My mother put up with my father’s desire to prove himself on the domestic front, but she put her foot down when he came home with marijuana one day and suggested they try some together. I have always suspected my mother’s morality to be more closely aligned with her innate Calvinism than anything else—I don’t believe, for example, that she thought marijuana was evil—I think she rather found it threatening because it represented a new form of sensuality, a possible loss of control. After all, gin, with its astringent, medicinal taste, was the drug of choice in my parents’ circle—except that in those days no one saw it as a drug (in spite of what I now know was rampant alcoholism among those God-fearing folk). But marijuana, now that was a drug.

My father was disappointed to have his idea rejected, but he was determined to sample this strange intoxicator of Democrats, and so he did it in secret, behind my mother’s back. On Sundays, he would take me to the park to fly kites, and it was on those forays that he partook of this sinful weed, destroyer of good Protestants. He would stop at the Convenience Food Mart on the way to the park and send me inside with a quarter, enough to buy any kite I liked, or even two (the paper kites were 10 cents, the fancy plastic ones 25). As soon as the glass door closed behind me, my father would light up what he always insisted on calling his “marijuana cigarette.”

I almost always bought a kite with a black-and-white design of a skull and crossbones, not because I particularly liked the design, but because these were frequently the only kites left in the store. (Eventually I developed a fondness for

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this symbol, silly as it was, simply because of my kites.) I was hard on kites; the average one would last about a week before crashing to the ground and splintering into pieces or impaling itself in the branches of a tree.

I would come out with the Ohio sunlight glaring at me, reflecting up from the blacktop driveway, and there my father would be, sitting in his red Volkswagen Beetle, his window rolled down, smiling at me with bloodshot eyes.

“How d’ya do, cowboy?” he would say, imitating John Wayne (I knew it was John Wayne even though I’d never seen a western; my mother believed they were “too violent” and would warp my young mind). I would smile back at my father, squinting and blinking from the intensity of the sun.

As I climbed into the front seat next to him, trying not to catch my jacket on the sharp bits of straw stuffing poking out from the torn seat cushion, I could smell the heavy, sweet aroma of his “marijuana cigarette.” My father knew I knew what he was doing in the car while I was in the store, but he never smoked in front of me. He would not have lied if I had confronted him on the subject, but we never spoke of it. (Even then, I was learning to become a good WASP.) My father drove very slowly and carefully the remaining half mile to the park, and we both kept silent. I was busy opening my kite and assembling it, attaching the tail of rags and string I had made earlier in the day. When my kites self-destructed by crashing to the ground, I was able to recycle their tails, but when they landed in trees the tails were frequently unsalvageable; the kite would hang there for weeks, a grim warning to other impetuous kites.

The method for getting kites airborne was always the same: I would stand with the roll of string in the center of the park’s largest field, and my father would stand about 20 yards away, holding the kite over his head. When I felt the wind gust up a little, I would yell “Now!” and begin to run. Just at that moment my father would release the kite. I would take the first few steps holding the string taut between my hand and the kite, but after that I would gradually let out the string as I ran, looking back over my shoulder to see my kite soaring upward, skull and crossbones leering down over all of Northeastern Ohio. The take-off was of course the most difficult part, and I considered my father and myself to be the finest team I ever saw in that park or any other.

Wind, like all forces of nature, is a fickle and tricky thing, and my father and I had launched kites in conditions that would intimidate lesser flight crews. Even strong down-gusts or near-gale conditions did not daunt us: Our timing was impeccable, instinctive. My father seemed to anticipate my “Now!” by the tiniest splitsecond, and his hands would release the kite the instant my right foot took its first running step, creating that essential tension between pilot and kite. He would always let out a kind of “Whoop!” at that moment of release, a sort of invocation to the kite, and when it was airborne he would laugh with delight like a child. I was the stern, serious member of our team; as chief controller of the kite I felt my responsibility keenly, and I clenched my teeth as I played the kite to its highest altitude, carefully letting out just enough string to balance the pull of the wind, but not so much that a gust of wind could cause the kite to plummet.

Flying a kite is like sailing. You can feel the wind in your hands, and, like sailing, it depends on balance and finesse. The tension of the string connecting you to the kite must be just right: too much and the kite will plummet suddenly earthward, too little and it will languish and float down to the ground. I learned to concentrate all of my nine-year-old energy on maintaining that vital link between the kite and my hands, and even then it seemed to me to be a sort of dialogue between the three of us: the kite, the wind, and myself. The wind was neither foe nor friend, but simply there, to be made use of if I could manage it, and it was as capricious as an unruly child, full of tricks.

I liked the tricky winds best because they challenged my skills the most, even though I lost more kites to them. Sometimes a strong gust would push the kite into such an inexorable down spin that I couldn’t pull it out until it was too late and the kite had cracked into torn fragments, jagged splints of pale balsa strips sticking through the ripped paper like broken bones through skin. Sometimes a sudden strong wind would tear the roll of string from my hands, and I would run across the field after it, yelling to my father to join the chase. Sometimes we

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would catch the kite again—if the string happened to catch on a bush or other obstacle, we would dive at it, grabbing it before the wind could take off with it again. Frequently, though, if the wind was really strong, it would simply lift the cardboard roll of string high into the air beyond our reach, until the kite was caught in the branches of the tall trees that bordered the park, or until it sailed away, above the trees and beyond our view. I always liked to think that my lost kites eventually landed in another child’s back lawn somewhere in neighboring towns, a gift from the sky.

I mourned my lost kites, though—mourned each one of them, and the longer I had owned a particular kite, the longer I mourned it. I wanted them to last forever, although I knew that sooner or later the thin paper and flimsy balsa wood would fall prey to the forces of nature. I felt as though each outing was me and the kite against the wind. Each lost kite was a defeat, and I can still remember running breathlessly across that autumn-stubbled field, calling, not to my father it seemed, but to my kite, its skull and crossbones grinning down at me even as the wind stole it right from my grasp.

I loved Sundays. My father’s undivided attention would send me into paroxysms of ecstasy and excitement; like a dog whose owner has returned home, I felt everything with my whole body: the park, the tress, the grass—even the smell of gas at the station where my father always filled up the tank for the week. For me, the smell of gasoline at a pump is forever associated with Sundays with my father.

One Sunday that spring, the spring of my ninth year, as I stood on the cusp of childhood, of double-digithood, and my father stood on the cusp of whatever it was, we left for the park a little earlier than usual. We didn’t need to stop at the convenience store because I had not yet lost my present kite, but my father had some books to pick up at his office and wanted to swing by there on the way.

The college was situated on a hundred pleasant tree-lined acres and had some buildings that were of great interest to me, especially the student union building, which also housed the main cafeteria. I loved this building because it reminded me of a ship or a spacecraft. A creation of the early ‘60s, it was oblong and the walls

were entirely glass, so that from a distance you could see people moving around in it; from a distance, they seemed to be moving in slow motion, dreamlike. In the cafeteria you could get hot dogs, deliciously grilled (my mother always boiled hot dogs, which in my opinion ruined them), served with bright green relish and wrapped in toasted slices of soft white buns.

So as my father pulled his Volkswagen up to the entrance of College Hall, the main administration building which housed his office, I had my plea ready: could I run over and get a hot dog at the cafeteria—I would be very quick—it would be a good idea to stock up on nourishment (my voraciously devoured breakfast of French toast notwithstanding), since I’d be running around flying kites all afternoon—and I could bring him a hot dog too? To my surprise, my father preempted my spiel. Before he had even turned off the engine, he fished a dollar from the glove compartment. My father’s glove compartment, held closed with the help of black electrician’s tape, was like Ali Baba’s cave. You never knew what treasures you would find in it: loose change, wrapped hard candies, various hats and scarves, single gloves, buttons, bits of string, students’ papers, a pipe or two, shoelaces, packages of raisins, an occasional orange or apple, paper coffee cups, pens (some of which occasionally worked), manila folders, a comb with a few teeth missing, a man’s tie or two, used emery boards, notes he had scribbled to himself, a wristwatch with a broken strap, and a schedule of his classes. These were all things I had found in there at one time or another, and now that my father had taken up marijuana I half-expected a joint or two to come rolling out when he opened it. None did, though, and I stared at my father a little wildly when he gave me an entire dollar—enough for three hot dogs.

“I’ll bet you’d like to go get a hot dog, cowboy, wouldn’t you?” he said, smiling.

“Sure,” I replied, my mouth slack from amazement. “You want one?”

“Sure,” he said, struggling with the door latch on his side, which liked to stick now and then just to remind us of the power of inanimate objects. I stuffed the money into my jeans pocket and hopped out of the car; my father gave up on his side and followed me out my door, folding his long thin legs to climb over the stick shift.

As I ran across the lawn toward the cafeteria building, I felt the ground squishy under my feet, full of spring rain and worms. All around me fat robins were laboring industriously at their worm farming, yanking long rubbery earthworms out of the ground, flipping them into the air before swallowing them or carting them off to a nearby nest. Squirrels sat up on their puffy haunches to observe my passing—some hopped over to me expectantly, tame and spoiled by decades of feeding.

It was the first warm day of March, and though not officially spring yet, it was a day in which the air itself seemed a cause for celebration. Through four long months of Ohio winter the air had been our enemy, and now it was beckoning me out to enjoy its supple delights. I sprinted to the cafeteria building, digging the toes of my sneakers deeper into the soft, yielding ground. The cafeteria building hovered before me, that mysterious, transparent vessel—I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if it really did take off one day, spinning into space with its cargo of college students and hot dogs.

Now that my own college days are many years behind me, college students seem impossibly young, smooth-faced, raw, with the curious mixture of the moss of childhood clinging to an emerging adult, like a butterfly still covered with caterpillar fuzz. But when I was nine, they were to me the essence of sophistication. They were gods, graceful beings in black Danskin stirrup tights, long skirts, spotless white Levis, and plaid flannel shirts, moving serenely through ivy-covered buildings and hallowed halls. In contrast, I was sloppy and disjointed, an untidy child always in motion, always in a hurry to be somewhere or do something. In fact, the only time I felt a sense of power and grace was when I was running across an open field with the string of my kite firmly in my hand, the wind searing my face and rushing through my ears. When I was their age, I thought, I would be like them—contemplative, elegant, serene—but I was wrong. I am to this day untidy and kinetic, like my father. Serenity is not in my blood.

Upon entering the building through the swinging glass doors, I smelled the hot dogs, being grilled to a golden brown, awaiting me in the snack bar. I rushed

up the wide staircase to the second floor. The snack bar was not very crowded.

Only a few students sat at the small, round, fake marble tables sipping sodas and smoking cigarettes. I stood for a few moments watching a girl at one table with long, blond hair as thin and fine as a child’s—she held a Parliament filtertip between her index and forefinger with the grace of a sylph—and then I approached the stand to claim my treat.

“Onionsrelishmustard,” I chanted under my breath as I waited for the counter girl to notice me. I tapped the counter in rhythm, gently: “Onions, relish, mustard.”

“Yes? Can I help you?” She was suddenly facing me, wiping the Formica counter with a damp, stained dishrag as she spoke.

“Onionsrelishmustard,” I said, startled, and she smiled. She was short and unglamorous, obviously not a student here; the Lake Erie College coeds were all willowy and long-limbed and owned their own horses.

“I mean, two hot dogs, please, with onionsrelishmustard,” I said, fingering a tiny spot of dried ketchup on the edge of the counter. She turned and speared two perfectly browned, sweating hot dogs from the rotating, rolling grill and nestled them into steaming buns. I watched her spoon on the sweet green relish, then the delicious, vinegary onions, and finally the dark, yellow-flecked mustard. My mouth was a symphony of saliva.

“Thanks,” I said hurriedly, thrusting the dollar at her. I stuffed the change she handed me into the brown paper bag with the hot dogs and took off for the stairs, suppressing an impulse to slide down the shiny chrome banister. Out into the air and across the lawn to where my father waited in his office. We would eat together at his desk, unwrapping the white waxed paper over his green blotting pad, and he would put his feet up and let me play with the reel-to-reel Wollensak tape recorder he kept in his office.

College Hall did not face the cafeteria building, so I decided to see if the back entrance was open. To my surprise it had been locked in an open position (usually on a Sunday the building was closed except for the main entrance). Pushing my elbow against the door, clutching the brown paper bag containing the precious hot dogs, I stumbled into the stifling, overheated stairwell. The radiators hissed at me as I climbed the three flights to my father’s office; the warm weather of the last few days was sudden and thermostats were still set for winter temperatures.

As I began the final flight, something made me hesitate—a sudden feeling of foreboding. This was not unusual; I loved empty buildings, but at the same time they frightened me. This building was not empty, though, I told myself; my father was in his office waiting for me. I began to climb the third story. Halfway up, I heard voices. This was not unusual, either; other professors besides my father were known to drop in on a Sunday to work or to pick something up. These voices, however, stopped me mid-stair: there was something furtive about them, something secretive, conspiratorial. One voice was a man’s and one a woman’s.

Behind me, the radiator let out a sudden loud hiss and I jumped, dropping the hot dogs. The bag landed on its side, and the change I had carelessly thrown in it began to roll down the stairs. I grabbed for the coins, but as I did I heard a woman laugh, softly and secretly. The meaning of that laugh was clear even to a nine-year-old, and I froze, a quarter in my right hand and the bag of hot dogs in my left. I knew better than to do what I did then—but people often know better and they do it anyway. I knew that whatever was going on in that hall was none of my business, but that was precisely why it interested me. I moved, trancelike, toward the fire door leading from the stairwell to the hallway. The door was wooden, with a glass window in its upper half. I knelt so that I was underneath the window and held my breath, listening.

The two voices intertwined, weaving in and out of one another like vines. They were so soft and low that I had trouble making out any words, but I thought I heard the woman say, “Of course, darling,” and I thought the man said, “I know, I know,” a few times. After several minutes, the suspense was too much for me. I inched my head slowly upward until my eyes were just over the edge of the glass partition. As soon as my eyes cleared the glass, I saw them. They were standing face to face, eye to eye, nose to nose, lips to lips, their bodies reaching toward each

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other even as their lips met in passion. The woman was small, lithe, and dark, with smooth black hair. I recognized her as Lydia Haddad, a literature professor, fiercely feminist and much lusted after by all the undergraduate boys. Her eyes were as black as her hair and it was rumored that she was part American Indian.

The man was my father.

I wanted to turn and run, afraid they would see me, but I could not. My feet were planted as firmly as if I had suddenly sprouted roots. They were so absorbed in each other, however, that they did not even glance in my direction. My father stood leaning against the wall and she stood with her body leaning toward his, her hands on either side of him. There was something both comical and touching about this pose, with her in a dominating position; she was a tiny, elegant woman and my father was a rambling, shaggy man well over six feet tall. He resembled a large sheepdog cornered by a whippet. They seemed unaware of the awkwardness of the picture they presented, so totally concentrated were they on each other.

The universe for them began and ended with their two bodies; I might as well have been watching from a distant galaxy. Their conversation was low and proceeded in fits and starts, interrupted by kisses and the touching of hands. Once, he took her head in his palms and looked down at it for such a long time that I was certain he was going to kiss her, but instead he merely leaned forward until their foreheads touched.

They stayed like that for so long that I thought perhaps they had fallen asleep, but then they stepped back from each other, and, still holding hands, walked down the hall toward my father’s office. I stood looking at the empty hallway for a long time, until another loud hiss from the radiator made me jump. Then I turned, picked up the crumpled bag of hot dogs, and went to meet my father.

He was seated at his desk reading when I arrived, and looked up at me with a friendly grin when I entered.

“Hey there, cowboy,” he said. “Everything go okay at the corral?”

I nodded, still standing in the doorway, clutching the wilted bag.

“Okay, let’s have ’em,” he said, busily clearing the clutter from his desk. I handed him the bag and he filled two coffee mugs with Hires root beer from a bottle he had purchased from the vending machine down the hall. He handed me the mug that read “Life Sucks And Then You Die” (a present from a philosophy major). His mug said simply, “Professor.” This was our routine, our Sunday ritual.

This was what I lived for, but I sat there like a stone as my father gobbled up his hot dog, chatting about our vacation plans for spring break. I did not hear him, and when he asked me why I wasn’t eating my hot dog, I shrugged. He looked at me for a moment searchingly, and I thought he was going to say something, but just then the phone rang. It was my mother asking him to pick up some milk on the way home. He spoke to her cheerfully, twisting the gold ring on his left hand as he talked.

“Well, pardner, let’s go,” he said as he hung up, “We’d better get over to the ranch before the cattle have all wandered off.” I followed him obediently out to the car. If my father noticed my remoteness he did not acknowledge it. In fact, he was particularly jocular and cheerful, singing along with the radio, tapping his hand on the dash board and joking about various college eccentrics.

By the time we reached the park the wind had picked up, and it shook the trees like a dog worrying a rag. The kite I had brought that day was a veteran. It had lasted through two Sundays and several smaller excursions in the schoolyard—it was, I was certain, a charmed kite. My father stood at his usual spot, holding the kite up with stiff arms. The wind was blowing hard in my face as I began my run down the field; it whipped against my cheeks, making my eyes water. I ran over the winter-scarred, crew-cut short grass doggedly, lips set in a determined frown.

Behind me my father called out to me, but the rushing wind was loud in my ears and I could not hear him.

“Now!” I yelled over my shoulder. “Let go now!”

He did, and the kite rose hesitantly, raggedly, dipping and swooping dangerously. I ran harder, pounding the ground, punishing the stubborn earth with my feet. The wind bit my face, taking my breath away, the ground rose up to trip me, and the string cut into my stiffening fingers. Still I ran furiously, pumping my

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legs until they ached. The kite stopped wobbling and began to rise swiftly, cutting through the wind with a force of its own—up, up toward the pale March sun.

I looked back at my father. He stood, hands in his pocket, looking at the kite with the eager, expectant face of a child. Suddenly I stopped running. The kite sailed higher, its leering face blocking out the sun’s orb. I stood there breathing heavily, and then I let go of the string. The kite paused for a moment, as if unsure of its freedom. Then, as I stood watching, hands at my sides, my kite sailed quickly away over the treetops, toward the waiting sun.

Carole Bugge has five novels and a dozen or so short stories and poems in print. Bugge is currently working on a play about physics, “Three Scientists, One Train.”

Energy

There is this feeling To accomplish (with) The past pushing each day nearer to Where there’s a greater accomplishment.

You don’t have to like the way It’s going sometimes, Words not fitting rightsounding right.

Those tumbling over and over times will turn you onto another path comfortable and warm.

—Deb Shufelt

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PENCIL, PAPER, VOICE

BY GREG CORRELL Once a week we sit together, and we write. There is a method: freestyle for a few minutes, to loosen up, shake off the day; then a prompt, to stimulate us, a point of departure. We write, for about 45 minutes.

We share what we write, or not. There are rules of engagement: we don’t critique raw work, we treat everything as fiction. We respond to the work as writing, not as a finished piece: what moves us or amuses us, phrases we like, believable characters.

What we notice about tone, development, dialogue. What stays.

Then we have tea, some conversation over fruit and cheese. Just a short break, then another prompt and more writing.

We meet for three hours once a week, a half-dozen of us, in a quiet living room in a house with a porch on one of those lovely side streets in New Paltz. We are supportive but not saccharine, mature enough to be kind, sharp enough to frame useful comments, young enough to remember, and eager to learn.

We write by lamplight. The essential sound is paper. The prompts are fascinating, banal, droll, sometimes disturbing. Once, the leader, Kate, laid out a hundred small objects: pictures, utensils, toys, tools—the flotsam of Dad’s cigar box, Mom’s top drawer. Often it’s writing: lines of poetry, a prose excerpt, a provocative question. My favorite was a construction we all created in turn, naming two characters, their favorite clothing, place of origin, pet. We use these prompts, or not, and Kate writes with us.

Some of us are new to writing but most are professionals of some kind: teachers, organizers, administrators, careers that require developed writing skills. I’ve produced copy for 15 years, mostly technical, marketing, and small ads. I’ve written some short plays. I wanted more. I wanted—want—to be a writer.

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I found my voice in Kate’s living room, in that very first six-week workshop. I started with comedy, with my plays, and a memory piece. I worried I’d be caught up in my need to amuse, to impress, to show off my questionable talent. It didn’t happen. From the beginning, it was something else. Technical aptitude wasn’t beside the point; grammar and syntax mattered. But what engaged us was honing our talent—authenticity, economy, a genuine voice. And truth.

I was the only white man, among four women. One, a long-haired former flower child from Northern California, wrote of travel and wanderlust, the melancholy of transit. Three of the women had grown up in the South, lived through segregation, civil rights, and now this “perfect,” post-Cosby culture of harmony and opportunity. No polemics, no arch, pointed essays. They read aloud their character studies, dialogues, personal memories, set pieces, found moments. They showed history, pain, hilarity, the common beauty of common life in hard times.

From the first night I felt the ground shift under me. I was free. I could sit with pen and paper, and at last write about my grandmother.

Nana grew up in Oklahoma. She was the first in her family to graduate high school, to get a teaching degree. She taught in the Reservation schools for a few years, went on to Kansas City to raise my mother, alone, through the Depression and the war. She rose in the KC municipal bureaucracy, had a career, and instilled in me, with infinite kindness and by example, a love of books. And she was black, a fact she and her own mother denied until late in life.

It was just a fact, never discussed in our family. Sitting and listening to the details of Southern lives, well described, I heard Nana’s voice. I remembered her stories, of red wolf hunts in the Ouachita Mountains, drunk cowboys, prairie schooners. I told simple stories, reclaimed her history, and fulfilled her legacy: I learned to write.

Greg Correll is at work on his first novel.

illustrations by carol zaloom

INSIDE WOMEN

BY CASEY KURTTI From 1995 to 2001—my prison years—I read more than 40 books. I was notorious for choosing the most unpopular titles for book club. Why did I think that anyone would be interested in Dorothy Herrmann’s biography of Helen Keller?

Like many of the women I met in prison, I was there because I had made a choice to ride shotgun in a car. In the fall of 1995, I made the fateful decision to accompany a handful of Marbletown Book Group members to a federal women’s prison. A group of incarcerated women were trying to set up a book club. Would some of us be willing to spend an evening at the prison? We’d read. They’d read.

We’d show them how to discuss.

The outside women left it up to the inside women to choose the book. Their suggestion was Toni Morrison’s Beloved. We were surprised that it was at the top of their list. But what did we know?

Nothing, it turned out. We didn’t even know enough to stay off the inviting, country club lawns of the Danbury Federal Correctional Facility on our debut visit. As we downed the remainder of our picnic dinner, a corrections officer in a white truck appeared over a hill and screamed, “Vacate the grass immediately!”

The mood inside the lobby was slightly less bust-ass. We weren’t frisked, strip-searched, or interrogated. We just had to fill out a standard visitation form, pass through the metal detector, sign a register, and have our right hand stamped with invisible ink.

We tried to exude an air of confidence as we walked across the open-air courtyard toward the education building. Twenty-five women, ranging in age from early twenties to mid-fifties, white, African-American, and Hispanic, waited for us, chairs arranged in an intimidating circle. After a few blind-date-nervous moments, I suggested we go around the room and introduce ourselves. But introduce how?

“Hello, I’m Casey.” Then what? Occupation? Astrological sign? Favorite author? Favorite book?

And what about the inside women?

“Hello, I’m Denise. Ax murderer. Scorpio. Truman Capote. In Cold Blood.”

I paused for so long that an inside woman sympathetically said, “Hello, I’m Linda.” No further biographical information. Less is more, especially in prison.

After the introductory roll call we got down to the most fundamental question.

“Did everyone finish the book?” The Marbletown Book Club members had, only because we were posing as literary role models. (I did not confess to reading the final pages on the two-hour ride over.) However, it surprised us that a significant number of inmates had not.

Why not? Wasn’t prison the place where Mike-Never-Read-A-Book-Before Tyson whipped through a virtual Penguin library, including Dostoevsky and Malcolm X? Don’t you just lie around and have plenty of free time to travel on endless literary journeys?

No. As the inside women explained, there are work assignments, from kitchen duty to assembling machinery for military contracts. There are mandatory and elective classes—GED, ESL, and job training—plus a staggering array of spiritual, social, or psychological programs. That leaves very little time to lie around, read, contemplate, or even fight over which soap to watch on a 25-inch color TV. One of the outside women said, “We were surprised that you chose Beloved.”

Serena, the silver-haired, European, self-designated inside leader, smiled. “Well, some of us do have taste.”

We bounced around, talking about Morrison’s style. But none of the inside woman were touching the most significant part of the book: Sethe murdering her child to avoid a life of slavery. I wanted to ask the questions I’d asked myself,

“Would you? Could you?”

But I didn’t ask. Instead I scanned the room. Are any of these women murderers? Have any of them killed a child? I looked over at the ancient public address system. Was it on? Were we being monitored?

Across the room, a shy, 20-ish Jamaican-American woman whispered, “I lie to my seven-year-old daughter about where I am.”

That was close as we were going to get tonight. The truth about a small lie.

Though the prison bars didn’t disappear, there was something in the room that allowed us to begin to whisper the secrets of our lives.

(The Danbury Federal Correctional Facility Book Club, started in 1995, continues to meet monthly. Names of inmates mentioned above are fictitious.)

Casey Kurtti is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter and playwright who created the Bardavon’s Young Playwrights program.

OPEN MIKE FOREVER

BY PP (PHILLIP) LEVINE In the dream, Neruda is first, caressing us with lamentations of love lost and found.

The signup sheet is full. The room is popping with literary luminaries. All-stars all. Then the alarm rings, my late afternoon nap is over, and I have a half hour to hustle down to the Colony Cafe in Woodstock for the 7pm start of Monday Night Open Mike Spoken Forever, which I host.

In theory, my presence is hardly necessary. A crowd gathers, a list of readers forms, and an orderly procession of willing voices takes the stage to read, recite, perform, shout, and each in their own unique way, share five or so minutes of themselves. In theory. In practice it seems otherwise. Somehow, I’m needed.

Besides arranging the night’s two featured poets—readers or performers who will have the mike for 20 minutes or so in the prime of the evening—I shepherd, encourage, welcome, listen, and acknowledge. Wind down the overlong. Wind up the hesitant. And thank. Start it going as the first “sacrificial” poet, keep it moving through the lulls, introduce the features and confirm when it has ended.

For more than four years, every Monday night, with a few (very few) nights off, that’s been the job. It’s a labor of labor.

I joke. But not completely. It’s a Zen practice of letting go. A rolling with waves.

Like an athlete through a long season, it’s one mike at a time. Don’t get too high when it’s good, nor too low when it’s bad. And it can be both. I roll with it. The one thing I don’t do is censor.

As an open mike host, I will not be the arbiter of any aesthetic. To my mind, that’s not my job. Of course, I have my preferences, my favorites (and my not so favorites). But I’m not there to pick and choose. I’m there to facilitate the sharing, because sharing is what the open mike is all about.

I’ve hosted 300 or so open mike nights and through them all one thing has emerged. The primary key to a successful open mike is keeping it open. Early in my first year as host, as I was finding my feet, exploring how best to do this, I looked up the word “open.” It must have one of the longest entries in any dictionary. As a noun, adjective, and verb, it has 88 unique definitions over nearly an entire page of my Webster’s. And perhaps they all apply, but the definition that I think fits the best is a Heideggerian concept of open. A noun, a place, the space between you and me where language, meaning, art, happens. Where we become like gods. Still, I can’t be so open-minded my brains fall out. But I don’t have to be; the open mike is self-regulating. The good voices are rewarded. The good work is noticed. I relish what I relish and in some way I usually let that show, but for the most part I simply serve to welcome all.

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Or nearly all. My open mike is essentially a spoken event. We do have some exceptions—an occasional dancer, the odd juggler, magician, whirling dervish—but predominantly it’s poetry, prose, and spoken performance. Only very rarely do we bend the “no melody” rule. I love music, I love song, but the mike I run is for words. Our words.

There are many open mikes in this area and a wonderful and varied collection of talented and beginning voices. Add yours. Any Monday. Forever.

PP (Phillip) Levine is Chronogram’s poetry editor and a ubiquitous presence on the Hudson Valley poetry and performance circuit.

THE PROUST GROUP

BY MARY LOUISE WILSON It is always desirable that one’s various daily destinations, the necessary venues of grocer, dentist, wine shop and shoe repair, should be in the neighborhood of one’s home, if not within walking distance, at least no more than a 20-minute drive, and yet there are certain more exotic commodities that I never dreamt of finding in the environs of my little hamlet of Stone Ridge, hidden up winding back roads with names like Upper Sahler, Lower Sahler, Ricci, Buck, Wyncoop and Vly, roads that twist around mountains, through pine forests and past trailer camps only to wind up back where they began, rarities which I imagined could only manifest themselves in the fetid dormitory rooms or smoke-filled boites of some distant university town, namely, fellow Proustians. Discovering such rarities tucked into the bucolic was like stumbling upon a bed of fraises de bois spread at my feet, their tiny, fragrant rubies winkling up at me from beneath their green parasols, and so it was after endless twistings and turnings through dense thickets that I came upon the shining home of M. Gubits, sitting in the woods like some downloaded Taj Mahal, and within which M. Gubits’s bookshelves fairly groaned with Proustiania, and despite the fact that he had long ago read Remembrance of Things Past, he agreed to do it again because he thought it one of the funniest books ever written, as did another fragrant morsel stumbled upon in the wilds of Kripplebush, M. Fattizzi, whose home also boasted shelves and shelves of books, and who had announced on our first meeting that he was reading Ovid and that Ovid was very funny and entertaining, which led me to believe that he would find Proust a piece of Madeleine, but as I should have guessed, he had already made a meal of Remembrance, and yet he also agreed to do it again because he said he couldn’t remember a lot of it. In the opposite way from the Vly lies the Hurley Plain, where sits the prim cottage of Mme Wardwell, whose dining room wall holds books, books, books, books, and who confessed to me that she had read Remembrance not once but twice, yet she also wished to read it through once again because she had forgotten how funny it was, which made my happiness complete, for I alone among these prodigious bibliophiles had never been able to get beyond Swann’s Way, which had solaced me on a miserable road tour of a detestable play, and in which I discovered the likeness of an overbearing fellow actress who sucked all the air out of the room, to that of the salon hostess Mme. Verdurin, and thus discovered a Proustian truth, that the pushy always rise to the top, and so it was that we began to meet once a month to discuss the hundred pages or so that we had agreed to read, and to complain about the Narrator, his childishness, his anti-Semitism, his, his maddening repetition and his cynicism about love which drives M. Gubits, who is engaged to be married, to distraction, but we keep reading, for the author’s fascinating characters, his insights into the human condition, his use of metaphor and his glorious sense of humor, and we have now progressed to Volume Three, The Guermantes Way, and I believe we shall persevere, we must, because only thus will I make it through to the end, I could not do it without Mme Wardwell, Messrs Gubits and Fattizzi.

Mary Louise Wilson has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times, and American Theatre.

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ACROSS THE THRESHOLD

BY NINA SHENGOLD When I was in high school and newly in love with the theater, I upgraded my hippie delinquencies with a classier vice: cutting school to attend Wednesday matinees. The seventies were the heyday of “Student Rush,” when a valid ID could get you a last-minute ticket to a Broadway show for a mere five bucks. I’d stash my schoolbooks under a shrub in my New Jersey front yard and board the commuter bus to Manhattan.

Like an awestruck pilgrim, I wandered the theater district, ogling marquees.

“Gypsy” with Angela Lansbury…Anthony Hopkins in “Equus.” At the Edison Theatre, a poster for “Sizwe Banzi Is Dead” showed two black men, one laughing beside a photographer’s tripod, the other beaming with a pipe in one hand and a cigar in the other. That pose got me wondering: Why a pipe and a cigar?

Why did these men look so happy? I bought a ticket. The usher escorted me to the front row.

South African actor John Kani opened the play with a tour-de-force monologue. As township photographer Styles, he recounted his years of factory work, saving money to open the tiny studio he called “a strong-room of dreams” for his people. He described some of the dreamers he’d photographed. Then he did the unthinkable. He looked into the audience—into the front row, at me—and reached out his hand, inviting me up on the stage for a closer look. Ears flaming with shyness, I shook my head.

Kani beckoned again. The man sitting next to me whispered, “Go on.” And somehow I did. I took his hand, clambered over the footlights and floated across the stage in a humming fog of excitement. I don’t remember one of the photos he showed me. But I’ll never forget Kani’s face as he begged me to look. “You must understand one thing,” he said, “We own nothing except ourselves. This world and its laws, allows us nothing, except ourselves.”

Though it doesn’t appear in the script, I’m certain this moment was planned, and repeated at every performance. Perhaps I was chosen because I was sitting alone, in the front row. But I felt anointed. I’d been invited across the threshold onto a Broadway stage, into the theater itself.

The play told the story of Styles’ customer Sizwe Banzi, a rural naïf who traded identities with a corpse in his desperation to get a work permit stamp in his Reference Book, the internal passport that ruled black lives in apartheid South Africa. Kani’s own Reference Book was reproduced in the show’s Playbill. Because South African officials didn’t recognize “artist” as an employment category for blacks, he and co-star Winston Ntshona were forced to register as household employees of white playwright Athol Fugard to get legal clearance to act in his plays. At the curtain call, Kani and Ntshona stood side by side without taking bows, eyes fierce and unsmiling. This play wasn’t a fiction that ceased when the lights came back up. Like Styles’ photos, it set down an everyday truth; it bore witness.

I was the last person out of the theater. A weary black usher padded over to ask me to leave, looked at my face and said, “Honey, are you okay?” I nodded and stumbled out into an ordinary Wednesday on West 47th Street. It was daylight.

I burst into tears. It didn’t seem possible that I had been through so much and the sun was still out. And I knew now, beyond any doubt, what I wanted to do with my life.

Theater is human connection. As playwrights and actors, we forge stories out of our own raw materials: body, word, and emotion. With the simplest of means—two actors, a nearly bare stage, and some eloquent words—“Sizwe Banzi Is Dead” led an American teenager not only to a photographer’s studio in a South African township, but to the lifelong pursuit of that “strong-room of dreams” we call theater.

Nina Shengold won the Writers Guild award for “Labor of Love” and the ABC Playwright Award for “Homesteaders.”

�������� �������� ����� ������������������������� Please join DCC in a month-long celebration of the Hispanic Culture.

9/17/05, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m Family Festival: Taino Dutchess Theatre .

9/20/05, 12:30 - 2 p.m.

Foods of Latin America Live Cooking/Tasting Demonstration Washington Quad

(please call to verify date)

10/7/05, 12 - 1 p.m.

Literary Reception Faculty read works by Hispanic authors Ritz Lounge

9/29/05, 12 - 2 p.m.

Lyceum Andes Manta The Vibrant Music and Culture of the Andes Dutchess Theatre

10/13/05, 3 - 4 p.m.

10/14/05, 12 - 2 p.m.

Dance Lessons Learn the favorite dances of Latin America Greenspan Cafeteria

9/21/05, 3 - 5 p.m.

Motorcycle Diaries Movie and Discussion Bowne Hall 122

10/15/05 10/4/05, 12 - 2 p.m.

Annual Gala Dinner Dance Journey of the Americas Traditional art, crafts, food, and music of Latin America Greenspan Cafeteria

������������������������������� ������������������������������������

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tastings

cool.

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Edward Schwarzschild

Well, first I would save that aging mystic Leo Tolstoy, who in his old age would be busy trying to throw his own masterpieces into the water. I’d also paddle to wherever J.D. Salinger is living these days and, despite the risk to the boat, I’d ask him to hand over a few of the refrigerators he’s been packing full of pages for decades now.

But, in more traditional Literary Lifeboat fashion, here’s the writer whose work I would save: John Berger, especially his trilogy, Into Their Labors, a fantastic collection of linked stories about the people who live in a village in France. Berger seems to be one of those writers who hasn’t received even close to the attention he deserves. He’s written powerful criticism, on Picasso, on photography, and on many other subjects. He’s a fabulous essayist, novelist, and short story writer. Plus he seems like he’d be a good guy to have in a boat because he’s read everything and knows everything.

These days, I’m sorry to say that the writer whose work I’d throw into the ocean is Cormac McCarthy. I remain a big fan of Blood Meridian and Suttree and even All the Pretty Horses. But I’ve been disappointed ever since about halfway through The Crossing. And I was really expecting him to become the next Faulkner. I was counting on it. Besides, he’d be a dangerous man to have on a lifeboat. His descriptions of knife-fights and other violence make me think he’d bring down some big trouble if we ran low on food or water.

Edward Schwarzschild is the author of Responsible Men and teaches writing and literature at SUNY Albany.

Russell Shorto

It is with due solemnity that I take The Great Gatsby in hand, lift it over the gunwales of my imaginary craft, and release it spine-first into the wine-dark sea. This is not to say that I don’t think Gatsby a fine story elegantly told.

The bone I’m choosing to pick is less with Fitzgerald than with a culture that pathologically overrates, that takes a good thing and bloats it into saggy greatness. I know I’m only supposed to select one volume for special treatment, but when nobody is looking I might inadvertently shoulder John Updike’s “Rabbit” novels overboard (I’m not exactly a communist, but the word bourgeois was created with such books in mind). And should any of the more outrageously self-important manifestations of Norman Mailer’s oeuvre have gotten into the hold I might find a way to unship them too. Oh yes, I’m supposed to rescue something. One volume. Something ineffable, truly grand, of its time and yet for all time. A line from P. G. Wodehouse’s My Man Jeeves makes its own case: “If you come to think of it, what a queer thing Life is! So unlike anything else, don’t you know, if you see what I mean.”

Russell Shorto’s most recent book is The Island at the Center of the World.

Nina Shengold

I was raised by voracious literary packrats, for whom used book shopping was an extreme sport. So I approach this assignment with a certain Oedipal glee. I’d like to hurl the whole self-help aisle (already awash in chicken soup) into the drink. Wash it down with diet books, celebrity memoirs, and anything starring a serial killer. But since I must choose one book to drown, I’ll pick Gravity’s Rainbow. Partly because Thomas Pynchon’s grandstanding brilliance and verbal pyrotechnics made me want to gargle and rinse with some strong, plain prose about human experience—say, Grace Paley’s or Alice Munro’s—but mostly because his truly inimitable style was imbibed by a whole generation of writers who should not have tried this at home.

What to save? I’ll comfort myself by assuming my overcrowded lifeboat is full of great classics that I haven’t read yet, and scoop up My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George. Not only was this boy-meets-falcon survivalist story the first book I ever reread till its covers fell off, but when my lifeboat washes up on some uncharted shore, I can pore over Sam Gribley’s notebooks and wild plant sketches and learn (as every good book teaches, in its own way) how to live.

Nina Shengold’s novel Clearcut was just published by Anchor Books.

Susan Avery

My very personal choice is to save one Edith and throw one back.

It was in high school that my reading for pleasure began to be focused. First semester, I read Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, and have subsequently checked out other interpretations. When Edith floats by, I’m reeling her in. I think my rescue covers a lot of the basics—adventure, romance, guts, Achilles’ heels, dysfunctional families, and our connection to the earth and the universe. There’s

justice and injustice, both human and divine; an examination of timeless morality; and yes, even sex! Welcome aboard, Edith H. The very next semester, and unluckily two more in succession, I found myself in the English class of Miss Hermann (“Spelled with two n’s,” she insisted). She always started her classes with Ethan Frome, and even if you had just read it, sorry, no exceptions. Consequently this bleak but undoubtedly noble novel began to get on my nerves. The Teutonic Miss Hermann with hawk-like face and hennaed hair made my first exposure to Wharton a misery. When I handed in my third “original” analysis, I reviled every character in the book and spelled Hermann with three n’s. Many years passed before I would read the unexpectedly superb House of Mirth or Age of Innocence. I hope that Edith W. can forgive me, but Ethan Frome’s going overboard.

Susan Avery is co-owner of Ariel Booksellers in New Paltz.

Joan Schweighardt

I would like to save any collection of W.H. Auden’s poetry that includes his wonderful “Musée des Beaux Arts”—and if there’s a color photo of the Brueghel painting that inspired it, so much the better. For the privilege of rescuing such a book I would gladly cast out (and I can think of at least two people who will be appalled to hear me say this) James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. While I have returned to Auden’s poetry, and especially to his heart-rending image of Icarus falling into the sea in “Beaux Arts,” many times over the years, once I was done with Finnegans Wake (from which I was asked to read only a few pages for a Joyce overview undergraduate class) I knew, as many must, that I would never bother to open it again.

Joan Schweighardt is the publisher of GreyCore Press and author of Gudrun’s Tapestry.

Luc Sante

I’d throw back Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots and Leaves, but that’s harmless fluff.

Or maybe William Safire’s The Right Word in the Right Place—but Safire, while deeply irritating, is read mostly by after-dinner pedants like himself. See, I’m trying to find a suitable villain, some book on which to pin the deadliness of the current language, whatever it is that causes ordinary Americans to talk like cops or past-life regression therapists or MBA candidates or White House press secretaries—people with something to conceal. There are too many villains, of course, and few of them are books. But, just for fun, let’s pitch all current language books anyway, especially the ones geared toward business English.

In exchange I will rescue Lester V. Berrey and Melvin Van Der Bark’s monumental American Thesaurus of Slang (1942), 1150 pages documenting the vigor and inventiveness and syncopation the American language used to possess. It tells me that I’m a sauerkraut, an aginner, if not altogether a crouch bunny for revilifying those people with the round haircuts and treating them like airedales. The whole business is an academy knot, anyway. There isn’t a dopester alive who could work it out. I should just pull in my barber pole, make a visit to the piss factory, and throw some mouthwash over my head. That’ll give me a cracked pan and make me a happy duck.

Luc Sante’s books include Low Life, Evidence, and The Factory of Facts.

Brian K. Mahoney

I would dump Dave Eggers’s narcissistic opus A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius after crossing out the title and writing in its place: A Very Wet Book Resting on the Ocean Floor.

What to save: The Master and Margarita. Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterpiece of black magic and black humor opens with the devil arriving in Moscow, and shortly thereafter the heads begin (literally) to roll. At once a satire of Stalinist Russia, a historical novel about Pontius Pilate’s indecision about what to do with a clever vagabond named Jesus, a love story between a suppressed writer (the Master) and Margarita (an adulterous wife who doesn’t end up under a train like another Russian heroine), the novel is bound together in an allegorical slapstick magical realist style that echoes Balzac, mimics Chaplin, and prefigures Borges and Heller.

Bulgakov, whose book was suppressed and not published until after his death, also knew that you must give the devil his due, and provided the devil these words, seemingly predicting much of the evils to come in the 20th century: “What would your good be doing if there were no evil, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?”

Brian K.Mahoney, editor of Chronogram, regrets that he is allowed but one book to toss into the sea, as the “Left Behind” series was high on his list of damnable literature.

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Ann Patty

I would save a good unabridged dictionary: the OED (compact, two-volume, with magnifying glass), Webster’s Third, or The American Heritage. A dictionary contains all of literature: words. And behind every word is a history, sometimes even a plot. Also, if one is lucky enough to have company in one’s lifeboat, one can play “dictionary.”

I recently found in Webster’s Third the perfect word to describe the style of those books that I would toss overboard: phatic (adj): employing or involving speech for the purpose of revealing or sharing feelings or establishing an atmosphere of sociability rather than for communicating ideas. For example, our current president is a master of phatic communication.

Most of popular contemporary literature, alas, would have to go overboard. It’s dangerous for an editor to jettison the source of her livelihood, but truly great literature survives. If I have inadvertently consigned a Haruki Murakami or a Michel Faber to an octopus’s garden, I trust they will float back up again into the light, made buoyant by their lovely words transformed into meaning.

Ann Patty is an executive editor at Harcourt whose previous lifeboat experience includes editing Yann Martell’s Life of Pi.

The Writer Gets Defensive But Then Recovers

Poem Insurance

Of course they would be better if I worked on them.

Like this life.

Like this love.

But I am a lazy bastard, like God, who quit after seven days and went on vacation forever.

Even now He cashes the checks we send Him.

I’ve started paying for poem insurance.

This way, if a critic attacks my sonnets in The New York Review of Books (and I can prove that this “diminishes my livelihood”), I receive a payment. Or if I write in a poem “Steven Feldstein stole my Ouija board when I was 12,” and he sues me, I am covered. Or if a lesser poet plagiarizes one of my poems, I’m protected. Most professional poets have poem insurance nowadays.

Universities provide it for their faculty. “Uninsured poets” are seen as mere amateurs. (It’s a term of contempt.)

The mud that gets churned in the river, the burgundy left in the glass, settles into something as deep and dark as we are, a home to everything but ourselves.

—Sparrow Drink up the sweetness.

You were born at a minute to noon, broken, perfect, everything was your lunch.

—Jeff Garrett

(sin titulo) I reach into the sky And pluck poems by hand.

—Vennila Kain

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The Revelation for Rudy Scherreiks

I scrawled and scratched and chiseled as fast as I could to get it all down. My hands were bloody and my eyes kept closing.

Then I started sneezing. I couldn’t stop.

I think it was the granite dust.

When it was all done, it was something.

Everyone said it was.

I have no opinion.

—Donald Lev

BEST BOOKS

CHRONOGRAM’S CHOICE

2005

Since the Book Shelf’s debut in April 2004, we’ve reviewed more than 120 books, many by authors who live in the Mid-Hudson region. Here’s the cream of the local crop, picked by books editor Nina Shengold.

(To read full reviews, visit the archive at www.chronogram.com.)

BEST REVIEWED BOOKS BY HUDSON VALLEY AUTHORS FICTION

CONTROLLED BURN: STORIES OF PRISON, CRIME AND MEN SCOTT WOLVEN (SCRIBNER, 2005)

“Wolven’s portraits of the hardscrabble circumstances and failed relationships surrounding these lives are spare, fresh, and unromanticized. He doesn’t pontificate, just shows us how it is with elegant, simple language, and the picture that emerges is both simpler and more complicated than most people realize. Other reviewers have drawn comparisons to Steinbeck and Hemingway.

I just want more.” (Anne Pyburn, 7/05)

DILLINGER IN HOLLYWOOD: NEW & SELECTED SHORT STORIES JOHN SAYLES (NATION BOOKS, 2004)

“Sayles’s people are working people. They shuck crayfish, fall off horses for the camera, and change bedpans in crowded wards. Sayles knows and understands the hard, necessary work that makes the world stay its wobbly course, and his affection and respect for the folks who do it is unfeigned. A collection of character-driven stories that stick in the mind like overlapping bands of narrative Velcro.” (Mikhail Horowitz, 2/05)

THE HA-HA DAVE KING (LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY, 2005)

“The novel produces the very results that a ha-ha—a boundary wall concealed in a ditch so it doesn’t intrude on the view—was designed for: I was taken by surprise. King conjures a straightforward, gracefully awkward, agonizingly heartfelt voice to show us how Howie’s world shifts as he steps off the ha-ha into the sickening space of the future and miraculously lands on his feet this time. Like Howie, King has taken a leap with this debut novel and found his way.” (Susan Piperato, 5/05)

QUINN’S PASSAGE KAZIM ALI (BLAZEVOX BOOKS, 2005)

“A found-object sculptor attends a Cape Cod artists’ colony, bringing minimal clothing, a notebook, and Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. In spare, evocative phrases, Beacon resident Ali has fashioned a graceful prose poem of a novel.” (Short Takes, 4/05)

MEMOIR BLUE DAYS, BLACK NIGHTS RON NYSWANER (ADVOCATE BOOKS, 2004)

“A wild ride through LA, Key West, and Woodstock at breakneck speed, fueled by dangerous drugs, passion, and an almost inexpressible affection. Blue Days, Black Nights is a quintessential human journey, bravely and gracefully told.”

(Anne Pyburn, 10/04)

TRUE NATURE: AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF FOUR SEASONS IN SOLITUDE BARBARA BASH (SHAMBHALA BOOKS, 2004)

“Simple joy is abundant in these pages. True Nature is a beautifully wrought, engagingly honest work, a don’t-miss pick for nature lovers, spiritual practitioners, and everyone who’s ever wondered what would really happen if they ever had time for themselves.” (Susan Krawitz, 11/04)

NONFICTION BOUND FOR CANAAN: THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD AND THE WAR FOR THE SOUL OF AMERICA FERGUS BORDEWICH (AMISTAD/HARPERCOLLINS, 2005)

“Illuminating…Though today it’s difficult to imagine a society in which slavery was a fully accepted fact of life, one of Bordewich’s talents as a storyteller is to make the historical and social milieu of the past understandable to the modern reader. Bound For Canaan is a vital contribution to American history.” (Mary Britton, 7/05)

GUNPOWDER JACK KELLY (BASIC BOOKS, 2004)

“In the richly detailed, fast-paced Gunpowder, local writer Jack Kelly manages to break your heart and excite your mind. With fascinating anecdotes and thorough research, he reveals how gunpowder has shaped civilization. His short book has depth, and challenges the liberal reader with the complexities of our dark, explosive history.” (Greg Correll, 10/04)

MAMAPHONIC: BALANCING MOTHERHOOD AND OTHER CREATIVE ACTS EDITED BY BEE LAVENDER AND MAIA ROSSINI (SOFT SKULL PRESS, 2004)

“Reading Mamaphonic is like being on a retreat with an enormously diverse and wise sisterhood of those who really understand–punk rockers and dancers and researchers, cartoonists and cookie decorators, all pretty much in agreement: How do we do it? We don’t know. To do it is difficult, but not to do it would be impossible.” (Anne Pyburn, 1/05)

RABBI PAUL BRUCE CHILTON (DOUBLEDAY, 2004)

“Bard professor Chilton delves into historical and scholarly sources to paint a vivid picture of Paul and the times and controversies that swirled around him.

If you like your saints anemic and idealized, skip this one; for those who’d like to know what was really going on, it’s a thought-provoking gold mine.”

(Anne Pyburn, 12/04)

THE ZEN OF CREATIVITY JOHN DAIDO LOORI (BALLANTINE BOOKS, 2004)

MAJOR CONFLICT: ONE GAY MAN’S LIFE IN THE DON’T-ASK-DON’T-TELL MILITARY JEFFREY MCGOWAN (BROADWAY BOOKS, 2005)

“Its title accumulates meanings as you read. As a kid growing up in Queens, McGowan played war games so fanatically that the nuns in school had to remind him he wasn’t a Stuka dive-bomber. His prose marches in a straight line and keeps the pages turning.” (Jane Smith, 3/04)

PRIDE OF FAMILY: FOUR GENERATIONS OF WOMEN OF COLOR

“This volume describes how the practice of ‘the artless arts of Zen’—tea ceremony, bamboo flute, ceramic arts, Noh drama, and landscape gardening—can be used to experience and communicate profound spiritual insights. Painting, calligraphy, poetry, and the study of seemingly paradoxical questions, or koans, are also used extensively in getting the reader to acknowledge one simple fact: that we are all complete beings, lacking absolutely nothing.” (Jeff Garrett, 12/04)

POETRY

CAROLE IONE (HARLEM MOON CLASSICS, 2004)

THE EXTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

“Ione is a deft and skillful writer who effortlessly manages to carry the reader between various time periods and a complex of characters. Her memoir is a beautiful and intricate tapestry of memory, history, and genealogy. It is not only an enjoyable read, but an important contribution to a fuller understanding of an under-explored area of American history.” (Mary Britton, 1/05)

MICHAEL IVES (FUTUREPOEM BOOKS, 2005)

“Ives certainly makes a feast of language. He is both erudite and playful: orotund dys-locutions consort with chipper colloquialisms and vaudevillian patter. Call it oracular palaver. Its effect is both charming and disquieting, a navel-gazer alarmed by his own involuntary belly-dance.” (Adam LeFevre, 7/05)

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CHRONOGRAM’S CHOICE 2005 BEST REVIEWED BOOKS BY HUDSON VALLEY AUTHORS (cont.)

THE GREEN PIANO JANINE POMMY VEGA (BLACK SPARROW BOOKS, 2005)

“Bestowing beatitude upon figures occluded on the margins of American counterculture, particularly those locked within the prison system, this powerful volume of verse is destined to secure Janine Pommy Vega’s place in the galaxy of American poets.” (Pauline Uchmanowicz, 6/05)

NIEUW PFALZ DAVID APPELBAUM (CODHILL PRESS, 2004)

“What Olson did for Gloucester, MA, and what William Carlos Williams did for Paterson, NJ, David Appelbaum proposes to do for the Village of the Huguenots in this, the first installment of a projected epic poem. Judging by ‘Book 1: The Burial,’ he has succeeded in placing New Paltz on the map of the imagination.”

(Mikhail Horowitz, 9/04)

SAND & TRAFFIC PAULINE UCHMANOWICZ (CODHILL PRESS, 2004)

“Uchmanowicz portrays a ‘year-rounder’s’ Cape Cod of fickle weather, untimely deaths, and gritty sensuality. Her taut, precise poems are vivid enough to grab a reader at first sight and rich enough to reward a second reading.” (Short Takes, 2/05)

THE SOFT BOX CELIA BLAND (CAVANKERRY PRESS, 2004)

“Fans of poets as disparate as Mary Jo Salter and Federico Garcia Lorca will be attracted to this collection of poems, the emphasis of which is on the body, the lifeblood that stirs in each vein. Bland’s linguistic strategies are inventive: at once delightful, erotic, and serious.” (Nancy Rullo, 6/04)

STANZAS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE ED SANDERS (SHIVASTAN PUBISHING, 2004)

“Japan has National Living Treasures; Woodstock has Ed Sanders. The founding Fug, idiosyncratic man of letters, and unregenerate gadfly has gathered 15 of his overtly political poems under the welcoming banner of Shivastan.” (Short Takes, 2/05)

CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT

Why I Write I write for yellow reasons Because my mother Wore scarlet toreadors Because Arthur Kreiger Kissed my lips In sixth grade and I Will never forget Because I can’t swim too well Have high cholesterol Am older than ever Can’t do headstands Have bright pink secrets And constant dreams of strangers hands I write because My husband is Armenian My son Chilean And because I saw Jerusalem and Petra more than once And the Algerian desert And Anwar Sadat At a party Because I can’t sing Not at all Because of home care workers And the sound of night And my father Meyer Who I barely knew And because I love many And often and because Three is a lucky number Orange a lucky color And because of pretzels and artichokes And yes.

THE MIDNIGHT DIARY OF ZOYA BLUME LAURA SHAINE CUNNINGHAM (HARPER COLLINS CHILDREN’S BOOKS, 2005)

“Zoya’s journey resonates like the journeys of young adventurers in The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. Like every child in a classic tale, her courage in facing herself and the world reaps rewards and revelations. Bright boys will enjoy the no-nonsense Zoya just as much as girls. If you don’t have a child to buy this book for, borrow or rent one.” (Anne Pyburn, 4/05)

A MONKEY AMONG US DAVE HOROWITZ (HARPERFESTIVAL, 2004)

“Each spread in this delightfully illustrated book for children aged three to six contains a single line of text replete with vowels and the sort of consonantal juxtapositions that make reading aloud to small children pure pleasure.

Horowitz’s illustrations manage to be at once whimsical and unusually graphic.”

(Susan Piperato, 5/04)

ZEN SHORTS JON J. MUTH (SCHOLASTIC PRESS, 2005)

“Our grandparents used books like the Bible, Koran, and Talmud to teach lessons of wisdom, morality, and kindness. But in a world where an increasing number of us are checking the ‘spiritual, but not religious’ box, new alternatives are needed. Zen Shorts, Muth’s latest picture book, consists of three stories within stories. Each tale is an ageless gem, transmitted here with deft, gentle grace.” (Susan Krawitz, 7/05)

—Esther Cohen

On Reading My Poems To Other Parents Of Children Deceased Some sixth gear accelerates us into a universe at once prehistoric, and grotesque, where only God survives.

—Saul Bennett

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—E.A. Mlcak

A woman had a baby by a man whose name she never spoke. When she lay in the grave, the name curled into her ear and could not be written.

A woman had a baby. That woman made the best macaroons. She died before she taught her daughter how to make them and when her daughter looked for the recipe, it dissolved with her tears.

A woman had a baby. If the world holds to its pattern, she will die before her child, and though the dust of her burnt bones may look like words, like ink on the page, they will not be.

A Short Talk on Writing:

ARS POETICA

EDITED BY PHILLIP LEVINE . You can submit up to three poems to Chronogram at a time.

Send ‘em if you got ‘em, either via snail-mail or e-mail. Deadline: September 10.

314 Wall St., Kingston, NY 12401. E-mail: poetry @ chronogram.com. Subject: Poetry.

This is a love poem in every state except Louisiana.

—p

Sometimes Willy Coos Up to Rhyme

Sunshine

sometimes willy coos up to rhyme. leaning on it like a lover. brushing its hair. pinching its behind. caressing rhyme. tongue kissing rhyme. running his hands over rhyme’s body. and sometimes willy insists we justify the closure of our sentences with an a b a b rhyme scheme. that god meant us to speak in quatrains. that the world’s gone downhill since the elizabethan age. that free verse has gotten us in deep doo doo. maybe crazy Willy has something. maybe I better start speaking in sonnets or villanelles. maybe I better mind the way I end lines—justifying their conclusions with more appropriate framing—a more musical way of surrendering to the unfathomability of language. its porousness. its holy surrender to weak words that leave their stain on our skin or clothing. their modern bareness incapable of giving in to romance or beauty or passionate sweet nothings. next time i see willy i’m going to join him in a long thick parade of rhymes setting the universe upright.

From the sludge of sleep, I wake with a word each day.

More than once it was temptation.

I can’t keep track of how often it’s been lost or bewildered. Just yesterday, a string of them alliterating a little of this darkness, suffocating sycophants stay still. I can’t make sense of this calling.

Today, lugubrious with no clues where it’s come from or where we’re supposed to go together.

I’d like sunshine tomorrow, but it’s not up to me. If I pushed these things, you’d get a greeting card saying you are my sunshine, which of course you are, but don’t wait lugubriously to hear so from me.

—Bruce Weber —Frank LoRonca

Poets The Writing Life Place: Origin. Estimated time: Solutrean period, over easy. Tongue starts painting other ears to sweetly propose one’s essential twining, subtle part of every tribe, simultaneously proclaiming one’s estrangement, that separate, pesky otherness, enfant terrible. Subversively, poets orchestrate everyone’s terrified, struggling personas, open-ended, tragic, spasmodically praising ordinary erotic tendencies, stubbornly pursuing old echoes till stifled psyche offers equitable terms. Stateless, perfectly obsolete, Eshleman takes spelunkable Poe on euphuistic trips; scuzzy Pound observes Eliot teasing Sylvia Plath; obscurely evangelistic Tzara spontaneously pens obsessively empty texts, seductively purporting ... oh, enough treachery! Such play only encourages transformation; so please, oracles, embrace torn silences.

—Mikhail Horowitz

My wings are spotted hung out to dry silent pelicans soar following for pleasure what the wind tells them They glide they keep an orderly line They are sagacious grandparents with long and adjustable chins I am a different species a sort of elongated joke.

This little moment that we have together oh love me a little do not kill me with your understanding do not lean on the door of my brokenness I’ll remember the pelicans’ afternoon flight they sober as magistrates learning to slide on the wind -Shirley Powell

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A Poem From Marla: “X”

Critiquing the Deity

which will never be read; it’s too revealing of her. She writes it nevertheless. She was instructed to pen her thoughts onto paper like this in order to release The Demons. The pantoum reads:

Each member of the workshop would present a poem.

Lucretia, a friend who’d been born again a few years previously, handed out her poem, saying, “This was dictated by the Lord.” I read it aloud and asked for reactions.

Dear Jack, I must confess, it’s so easy to sleep now. I don’t have to lie on one side of the bed. I sleep in the shape of the letter X. To sleep now, I don’t have to lie.

My back no longer kinks in the shape of the letter X. When I get up in the morning my back no longer kinks.

Yours Truly, Marla.

(When I get up in the morning, Dear Jack, I must confess, it’s so easy!)

Marla guesses that’s not exactly what was intended, but it’ll do for now.

Following Dr.’s instructions, she crumples paper into fist-sized ball, places it in bowl, and burns it to ashes. She wonders which Demon has been released, where it’s flown to now and if it was one of hers.

—Maryann Hazen Stearns

Instead of a Love Poem I do not set my poems in orbit around you.

I carve a long hand out of words To scratch an unreachable itch.

I squeeze my breath through a broken branch That is hollow and drilled full of holes.

I cling to metaphor’s slender bridge Above a churning abyss.

What would compel me to spell out your name When my moist whisper pours it into your ear?

Why perfume paper with words, When, thinking “He likes coriander,” I stretch my hand to the spice rack?

Total silence. No one letting me off the hook, as group leader I had to start the discussion.

“I hesitate to comment on this,” I said, “considering the source. But maybe there are places where things could be expressed more clearly.”

They looked at Lucretia. She said, “I am merely a vessel,” so everyone breathed again and began to offer comments on the words, lines, and metaphors. A triumph of diplomacy, perhaps, but a failure of art: the poem wasn’t any good.

—Lewis Gardner

Anonymous is This Woman Mortality is anonymity enough, thank you very much, so while I’m alive I crave fame.

Even notoriety will do, any nod of collective recognition in my direction. I want people to pass on Main Street and whisper, “That’s her.

That’s Marcia Nehemiah. The writer,” their reverence falling over the word, “Writer,” like the ancient Greeks speaking of their poet-priests.

I want a woman seated at a window in Nebraska, cup of tea in one hand, book in the other, or a man sunk in a La-Z- boy in Wyoming to read my poems and rest with truth, satisfied (before life barges back in) with the beautiful evanescence I’ve made.

I dream that publishers will call me and ask to read my latest.

Periodically, I declare I’m giving it all up, this writing gig, giving up rattling around the house searching for an idea, a necklace of words to string out on the page, but I’m back the next day like a junkie who can’t stay away, and when I really cook, I forget fame and anonymity and the words just pour out of me.

—Yana Kane —Marcia Nehemiah

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MON - SAT 11:30 - 7:30,

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whole living 

pirited edicine pastoral care goes mainstream a long lost facet of healing is returning to the bedside as health care providers find ways to deliver much needed spiritual support to patients.

Dr. Daniel Aronzon, CEO of the 365-bed Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, understands better than most that “it takes more than medicine to heal.” As a pediatrician, he is well aware of the inherent spiritual needs of patients and family members during a loved one’s hospitalization. Yet as a hospital administrator, Aronzon is on the frontline of one of modern health care’s most difficult battles: to balance a more “humanistic” approach to patient care with the cost-driven realities of delivering medical services.

Aronzon reflects that with today’s shortened hospital stays, spiritual needs can more easily fall through the cracks. One concern is that time-crunched physicians may miss valuable opportunities to refer patients for pastoral care services. “Fifteen, twenty, or thirty years ago, hospital care was a different animal,” says Aronzon.

“Things weren’t rushed. For example, a patient with a hernia could expect to be in the hospital for a week,” compared to a much shorter stay today.

In a candid analysis of modern health-care culture, Aronzon draws a direct parallel between an increasingly fragmented and technologically dependent style of medical care, and a need for readily available spiritual aid. “As hospital care has become more complex, and patients’ illnesses more acute, the number of physicians caring for a patient and the number of medications given each patient has increased tremendously,” he says. “Physicians must react to patients’ needs more quickly. So, it’s ever more necessary that each patient have access, just as quickly, to spiritual care.”

Yet with physicians squeezed to see more patients in less time, is it appropriate for health care organizations to require doctors to incorporate, as well, a “spiritual awareness” in their patients? In recent years, this question has stirred a great deal of controversy, as well as change, in both medical education and health care administration.

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, the nation’s predominant standards-setting and accrediting body in health care, began to address spiritual care in the context of patients’ rights in 1998, when it required accredited health care providers to make spiritual care accessible to all patients.

However, many health care providers find it difficult to secure adequate funding for such services, and nationwide pastoral care resources are frequently stretched

to the breaking point. Many institutions are forced to rely almost exclusively on volunteer networks of both clergy and laypersons. When neither is available, doctors may be pressed to deal with difficult questions far beyond the scope of their medical training.

A CHANGING LANDSCAPE

Historically, our earliest nurses and physicians drew deeply from religious teachings in caring for the sick. One of Europe’s most celebrated healers, for example, was Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Revered as a mystic, Hildegard founded the first convent of the Benedictine order along the banks of the Rhine in Germany, and was also an important author of both spiritual and medical texts, including treatises on the curative powers of natural objects and Christian doctrine.

But by the 20th century, with increased reliance upon medical science, spiritual care had become a discrete domain, attended primarily by community clergy.

Such was the case with Vassar Brothers Medical Center. From its inception in 1887, pastoral care services were provided by the pooled resources of the Catholic parishes served by the hospital.

Last year, however, Vassar Brothers Medical Center joined a national movement in the health care industry to formally meld an interfaith spiritual care program into its services. Following an institutional review of the medical center conducted by the New York-based Healthcare Chaplaincy, Aronzon hired Reverend John Simon, a representative of that multifaith agency, to direct a new Department of Pastoral Care. Already Simon has organized a community chaplaincy program that trains local clergy, through a six-week training program based upon the national model of Clinical Pastoral Education, to minister to patients and family members in a diverse range of health care settings. According to Aronzon, bringing in Rev. Simon has very quickly advanced one of the institution’s key objectives: to provide a holistic model of patient care, one that addresses the complex relationship of physical, psychosocial, and spiritual health. “Reverend Simon’s work with the community chaplaincy program has literally been a Godsend,” he says. “We’re looking forward to expanding the program.”

As Simon often says, “A medical crisis is a spiritual crisis.” Difficult medical

       106

Reverend John Simon and Dr. Daniel Aronzon, CEO of Vassar Brothers Medical Center, in the hospital’s interfaith chapel

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and end-of-life decisions are very often intrinsically linked to spiritual beliefs. To illustrate this point, he tells of a patient who was close to death.

Medically, there was little that could be done, except to keep the patient as comfortable as possible. Gathered around the patient’s hospital bed with Simon were family members, a nurse, and a physician member of the Palliative Care Consult Team, to assess the most effective means of pain management for the patient.

“Although he cannot talk, this fellow is lucid,” Simon recalls. “Though ventilated, he can make eye contact and nod his approval to questions the medical team is asking. As the various medical options were being explained, the patient became emotionally unresponsive.

At that point, I asked if it would be possible for me to meet with [only] the patient, his spouse, and the palliative care physician. After having the spouse introduce me, I shared with the patient concerns, which from my role as a husband and father, and as a man, I suspected he might have.

I connected with him on a human level first, as a point of entry, and then helped him draw strength from his faith to make one of the greatest decisions of his life.”

Simon goes on to describe how this conversation ultimately elicited a response from the patient that included affirmation (by nodding) that he was “ready to let go,” which meant the eventual removal of the breathing machine, a decision about which there hadn’t been an earlier family consensus. The patient also nodded to acknowledge fear that he would disappoint his family by “giving up too easily.”

“The man had tears in his eyes” when finally able to convey these thoughts, says Simon, “and I felt that he had clearly reached a place of peace where he felt as though he was honoring both his own and his family’s wishes.”

FAITH JOINS THE DECISION-MAKING TEAM

A small but growing body of research supports Simon’s real-world experience of the importance of a spiritual dimension to medical care, and calls for even greater integration of them. Dr. Harold Koenig, director and founder of the Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health at Duke University, where he is also associate professor of psychiatry and medicine, is one of the nation’s leading experts on the intersection of spirituality and medicine.

Speaking at a 2003 symposium titled “Is Prayer Really Good for Your Health?,” Koenig referenced a study conducted a few years earlier at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, in which researchers concluded that “66 percent of medical patients indicate that religious beliefs

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would influence their medical decisions should they become seriously ill.” Koenig presented an additional study that asked whether patients with end-stage lung cancer should receive chemotherapy. “Family and patients ranked ‘faith in God’ as second in importance” in their decisionmaking about treatment, “even ahead of whether or not chemotherapy would effectively treat the cancer. [The oncologist’s recommendation was ranked first.] When 300 oncologists were asked this question, they ranked ‘faith in God’ dead last among seven or eight other important influential factors.”

His take-home message to colleagues is clear: “End-of-life decisions relate to religious beliefs and can cause serious conflict” with medical treatment options. He asks, “With religious beliefs having such a profound influence on medical decisions, how can doctors practice good medicine without communicating about these issues with their patients?” He recommends that doctors “respect, value, and support the beliefs and practices of the patient, and orchestrate the meeting of spiritual needs.” Further, Koenig is an avid proponent of training doctors to take a “spiritual history” of each patient, in the context of conducting a medical exam.

In opposition to that idea at the symposium was Dr. Richard Sloan, professor of Psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. “Should we be spending time exploring patients’ religious beliefs when we already know that, even today, not enough physicians ask about smoking? About diet and nutrition? With a limited amount of time, what do we want physicians to spend their time on?”

SPIRITUAL SCHOOLING FOR NEW DOCTORS

Dr. Aronzon believes there is, indeed, a need for physicians “to develop sensitivities to the spiritual and psychosocial needs of patients.” But he concedes, “It’s sometimes difficult to teach old dogs new tricks.” On the positive side, he points out that “newer graduates are much more understanding of the value of pastoral care and will seek referrals for their patients much more easily.” He adds, “The time for inculcating the importance of a spiritual component of patient care is in the first years of medical school.” Health care administrators like Aronzon are finding this view increasingly supported by contemporary changes to medical school curricula.

Indeed, as health care delivery has become more fragmented and cost-driven, the push for a more humanistic approach to medicine is gaining momentum among a constituency that, even some 20 years ago, would have seemed highly unlikely. Until quite recently, the Association of

American Medical Colleges (AAMC) had little inclination to endorse courses designed to teach doctors to assess the spiritual, emotional, and psychosocial needs of patients. Yet a nationwide trend among medical schools to integrate courses focusing on topics such as spirituality in medicine, cultural competency, and (in a more general sense) humanism is clearly under way.

In 1994, only 17 of the 126 US medical schools offered courses in spirituality in medicine. By 1998, this number had increased to 39 and by 2004 to 84.

The results of a 2004 survey of the nation’s medical school curricula, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that in 1994 only 17 of the 126 accredited US medical schools offered courses in spirituality in medicine. By 1998, this number had increased to 39 and by 2004 to 84 schools.

What are some of the factors that have fueled this surge? Dr. Christina Puchalski, founder and director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health in Washington, DC, believes that the trend stems from consumer demand for a more humanistic approach to patient care. She characterizes traditional American medical schools as the breeding ground for recent cadres of physicians ill-equipped to treat patients holistically. She underscores that, while “so much of the impetus in [medical] education and the way that our physicians, myself included, were trained, is to want to cure and fix the problem,” it has its downside. “The public has responded negatively to that, with comments in the press and elsewhere that doctors are ‘overtechnologicalized,’ so to speak—that they focus too much on the disease and not enough on the person.”

Puchalski reflects that in 1992, George Washington University Medical Center, where she is Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Care Sciences, offered one of just three courses on spirituality then available nationwide. She points out that an initiative spearheaded by the

AAMC, titled the Medical School Objectives Project, came “in direct response to the public outcry about training physicians and the fact that physicians are becoming too cold, too technical, and that people wanted a warmer, closer relationship with physicians.” That initiative called for expanding medical school curricula to include courses that encourage a more holistic approach to patient care.

Closer to home, Dr. Rita Charon, Professor of Clinical Medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, directs the Program in Narrative Medicine, an innovative model that she founded. Medical students are required to choose electives from a host of courses offered through the Humanities and Medicine Seminar Series. “The long-range goals of the seminars are to enable P & S graduates to practice medicine with their full selves, using all their gifts toward the health of the patient,” she wrote in a 1999 issue of the College’s student newsletter. Today the seminars are immensely popular.

One such seminar is Father Daniel Morrissey’s “Faith in the Face of the Practice of Medicine.” As a Roman Catholic priest and Ivy League professor, Morrissey helps new doctors to bridge two worlds: that of the spiritual/religious and that of the traditionally secular realm of academic medicine. His course addresses some of the challenges faced by members of both the medical and pastoral care communities as their roles intersect—and sometimes even blur—within hospital walls.

Morrissey equates the uncertainty of his medical students when they are faced with patients’ questions of faith to his own cautious responses in discussing medical conditions with patients.

He recounts that one medical student was asked by a patient, “Does God love me?” Morrissey understands that student’s concern: “What if I say the wrong thing?” Yet these are exactly the kinds of difficult questions that warrant further pondering as modern medical education and health care evolve.

Morrissey cautions, however, “When you talk to a patient and they say ‘God,’ they can have a very different meaning than the one the doctor or medical student might have. We all have to be aware of this. There is absolutely no place for proselytizing a particular religious belief system in the practice of medicine.”

Dina Greenberg is a freelance journalist who writes extensively on a variety of health topics, including the intersection of spirituality and medicine, health care access for vulnerable populations, and complementary and alternative therapies. She lives in Haddonfield, NJ.

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YOUR BUSY DAY SIX ONE-MINUTE EXERCISES TO EXPAND YOUR SOUL

FITTING SPIRITUALITY INTO

BY ALAN SEALE ILLUSTRATIONS BY MICHAEL BERNIER

Whenever I teach workshops, I always hear this question: “How do I fit spirituality into my life?” We’re all so busy with our families, jobs, and social lives that it’s challenging to find time for regular spiritual practice, such as meditating. People seem to have the mistaken belief that spiritual exercise, like physical exercise, requires setting aside 30 minutes to an hour a day. But as long as you’re trying to fit your spiritual practice into your already packed life, it’ll probably never happen—at least not in a rewarding way.

Don’t stress about the fact that you can’t find a half hour of free time each day for meditation and contemplation. Here’s an alternative: Take tiny moments throughout your day to give thanks, empty your mind, become aware of your body, acknowledge feelings, or become a vessel for divine energy. Practicing spirituality this way is easy and highly satisfying. You will feel calmer and your mind will be sharper. You will feel energized.

You will sense a greater connection with others, and you will even find that you are more positive and productive at work.

To the harried and hurried, I suggest turning the question upside down. How do I fit my life into my spirituality?

You can begin to do this by thinking of spirituality not as something you do, but rather, as a way of life. Spirituality is not something you learn, something foreign to your soul. It is your soul’s natural state of being, all day, every day, no matter what you are busy doing. It is an unseen force, an energy that flows in and around us at all times. Your task, then, is simply to engage in small exercises or activities that allow you to become aware of that energy and to tap into it.

I call such an awareness intuitive awareness. Intuitive awareness is a talent that everyone has to some degree, and which can be developed to guide and direct our lives in powerful and transformative ways. Intuition is a manifestation of our spiritual energy.

Spiritual energy acknowledges that there is profound knowledge and wisdom available to any of us all the time. We simply must turn our awareness toward our connectedness with the universal consciousness.

Think about the unseen forces in our lives, such as radio waves and electricity, which 150 years ago would have seemed pure fantasy. Today, not only have we accepted and incorporated the reality of these unseen energies into our daily lives and become more dependent on them, we have built whole technologies upon them and altered our daily lives accordingly. If we accept these unseen forces as coexisting with our physical reality, why not allow our perspective of day-to-day reality to include the mystical forces of the universe?

The first step toward living in your intuitive awareness is to remind yourself throughout the day that you are connected to a divine source of wisdom. This requires disciplining your thoughts.

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However, disciplining your thoughts does not have to be an added time commitment in your daily schedule. It can take less than 60 seconds to do. Partaking of the peaceful spiritual energy that results is a bit like dipping a cup into a flowing stream, letting it fill up, and drinking.

Here are six exercises you can use throughout your day, each of which can be performed in a minute or less.

1. Hold a vision. Take advantage of “mindless” time—such as standing in the shower, driving to work, or downloading new software—to picture something beautiful and hopeful for yourself.

Once you form the vision, make a conscious effort to hold it, keeping it at the front of your mind, without letting other thoughts intrude.

2. Begin the day with breath. Right after your alarm goes off in the morning, but before you jump out of bed, take one minute to breathe deeply. Pay attention to each in-breath and each out-breath. Focus only on your breath, not your to-do list.

3. Open the third eye for clearer perception.

Focus your gaze on the tip of your nose for 30 seconds. Your eyes will cross and you will feel pressure at the third eye (located just above and between your eyes in your forehead). Then relax your eyes. Next, shift your focus on the bridge of your nose, directly between your eyes, for 30 more seconds, then relax.

4. Who am I right now? Take a few breaths to enter a calm state. Then, ask yourself: Who am I right now, in this exact moment? Allow the response to come as thoughts, words, feelings, images, colors, or sounds. Make no judgment about what comes to you. Write down your answers.

5. Release emotional blocks. With your dominant hand, write the question: How does it feel to write with my nondominant hand?

Then write the answer with your nondominant hand. With your dominant hand, write: Please tell me who I am. Answer with your nondominant hand. As you write each answer with your nondominant hand, respond to the answer with another question with your dominant hand. Be curious. Your intuitive mind will guide you if you let it.

6. Find your rhythm. Take just 60 seconds to close your eyes and become aware of your breathing. You may want to take a couple of deep breaths at first. Then allow your breath to gradually find its own steady rhythm. This simple exercise will keep bringing you back to your natural, inner rhythms.

Each of these exercises will help you get back into alignment with your spiritual energy and your connectedness with a universal consciousness. How often do you spend more time than these exercises take in fretting over how overwhelmed you are with the demands of life? By sitting in the stillness of your breath and the expansiveness of your soul, you will discover that solving problems becomes easier and quicker. It will actually save you time.

You may also find that when you are faced with a situation during the day that calls for you to be emotionally calm, use sound judgment, or be circumspect, you will be better prepared to do so. Hopefully, the next time your supervisor calls you in for a conference, for example, or you get an unexpectedly hostile phone call from your spouse, or a friend hurts your feelings, you will be able to call forth a spiritual energy and wisdom that you’ve practiced accessing throughout the day, and this will underlie your response. You may start to notice subtle and positive shifts in the energy between you and those other people.

Make the conscious choice to be the keeper of your life, rather than letting your life be the keeper of you. Choose to live in your bigger, more expansive self, rather than your smaller, more closed self. You’ll be amazed at how your life starts to fit into your spirituality and brings you a richness of being that you never imagined.

Alan Seale has authored several books, the most recent being Soul Mission, Life Vision: Recognize Your True Gifts and Make Your Mark on the World (Red Wheel/Weiser). He teaches workshops across North America and has a private coaching practice based in Jeffersonville. He will be conducting a four-day intensive workshop called “Soul Mission, Life Vision” on September 15-18 at High Falls Yoga and Moving Art. For more information: (866) 353-4993; www.alanseale.com.

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whole living guide ACUPUNCTURE Dylana Accolla, LAc Treat yourself to a renewed sense of health and well-being with acupuncture, herbal medicine, Chinese bodywork, and nutritional counseling. My emphasis is on empowering patients by teaching them how to practice preventative medicine. Great for gynecological problems, chronic pain, and managing chronic illness. Two locations: Haven Spa, 6464 Montgomery Street, Rhinebeck, and Woodstock Women’s Health, 2568 Route 212, Woodstock. (914) 388-7789.

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Acupuncture Health Care, PC Peter Dubitsky, MS, LAc, an acupuncture teacher for 12 years, examiner for the national board for acupuncture (NCCAOM), and member of the NYS Board for Acupuncture. He combines acupuncture, physical medicine, and traditional Asian techniques for effective treatment of acute and chronic pain conditions, and is available for acupuncture treatment of other medical conditions as well. Callie Brown, LAc, also an experienced acupuncturist specializing in acupuncture facial rejuvenation, combines her training in clinical nutrition with the latest in painless acupuncture techniques to treat the effects of aging. 108 Main Street, New Paltz.

(845) 255-7178.

Stephanie Ellis, LAc., Chinese Herbalist Specializing in chronic pain, infertility, digestive disorders, and pediatrics. Now certfied by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in acupuncture treatment of people with cancer. Many insurances accepted, sliding scale. Evenings, weekends. In Rosendale since 2001, now with a new, expanded location at Rosendale Family Practice, 110 Creek Locks Road, (845) 546-5358.

Hoon J. Park, MD, PC For the past 16 years, Dr. Hoon J. Park has been practicing a natural and gentle approach to pain management for conditions such as arthritis, chronic and acute pain in neck, back, and legs, fibromyalgia, motor vehicle and work-related injuries, musculoskeletal disorders, and more by integrating physical therapy modalities along with acupuncture. Dr. Hoon Park is a board-certified physician in physical medicine and rehabilitation, pain medicine, and electrodiagnostic studies. His experienced, friendly staff offer the most comprehensive and individualized rehabilitative care available.

Please call the office to arrange a consultation.

New patients and most insurances are accepted.

1772 Route 9, Wappingers Falls, NY 12590. Half mile south of the Galleria Mall. (845) 298-6060.

ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE Judith Youett The Alexander Technique The Alexander Technique is a simple, practical skill that, when applied to ourselves, enhances coordination, promoting mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Improve the quality of your life by learning how to do less to achieve more. Judith Youett, AmSAT. (845) 677-5871.

AROMATHERAPY Joan Apter Offering luxurious massage therapy, including Raindrop Technique, with therapeutic essential oils

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to relieve stress, boost the immune system, and address system imbalances. Natural animal care, individual consultations for a healthy home and personal concerns, spa consultant, classes, and keynotes. Essential Oils, nutritional supplements, personal care, pet care, children’s and home cleaning products from Young Living Essential Oils.

For more information contact Joan Apter, CMT. (845) 679-0512. japter@ulster.net. www.joanapter. younglivingworld.com.

ART THERAPY Deep Clay with Michelle Rhodes, ATR-BC, LMSW See Psychotherapy.

ASTROLOGICAL CONSULTING Eric Francis: Astrological Consultations by Phone. Special discount on follow-ups for previous clients from the Hudson Valley.

(206) 854-3931.eric@ericfrancis.com. Lots to explore on the Web at www.PlanetWaves.net.

BODY & SKIN CARE Absolute Laser , LLC Absolute Laser offers commitment to beautiful skin through outstanding care and service. Offering Laser Hair Removal, Microdermabrasion, Vitalize Peel, and Fotofacial RF. The Fotofacial RF is the next generation in high-tech skin enhancement.

These gentle, no downtime treatments are used to improve cosmetic appearance of the face, neck, hands, and body. The results are brighter, smoother, more radiant and luminescent skin. This process delivers results that skin care products alone cannot do! Recover and rediscover the youth and vitality of your skin. Call for a complimentary consultation: Janice DiGiovanni, (845) 876-7100. Springbrook Medical Park, Rhinebeck.

Blissful Beauty by Brenda Relax and revive with a professional beauty treatment from Brenda Montgomery, Licensed Aesthetician. Specializing in Burnham Systems Facial Rejuvenation, Belavi Facelift Massage, Anti-Aging facials, Acne treatments, and Body treatments.

Also offering airbrushed makeup for a flawless, natural look for your next big event. Your skin is not replaceable; let Brenda help you put your best face forward! Call (845) 616-9818.

Made With Love Handcrafted lotions, crèmes, and potions to nurture the skin and soul! Therapeutic oils, salves, and bath salts made with the curative properties of herbal-infused oils and pure essential oils. No petroleum, mineral oils, or chemicals are used.

Host a home party! Products available at Hudson Valley Therapeutic Massage, 243 Main Street, Suite 220, New Paltz. For a full product catalogue e-mail madewithlove@hvc.rr.com or call (845) 255-5207.

BODY-CENTERED THERAPY Irene Humbach, CSW, PC Body of Wisdom Counseling & Healing Services.

By integrating traditional and alternative therapy/ healing approaches, including Body-Centered Psychotherapy, IMAGO Couples’ Counseling, and Kabbalistic Healing, I aim to offer tools for self healing, to assist individuals and couples to open

blocks to their softer heart energy, thereby increasing their capacity to cope, create in the world, and love. Offices in Poughkeepsie and New Paltz.

(845) 485-5933.

Rosen Method Bodywork The physical body is the gateway to our emotional and spiritual being. Rosen Method uses touch and words to contact the physical tension that limits our full experience of life. As the body relaxes or releases this muscular tension, awareness of the underlying purpose of this tension can become conscious. Rosen Method provides the safety to hear from within what is true for us and to trust that truth.

Transformation then becomes possible. Julie Zweig, MA. (845) 255-3566. www.RosenCenterEast.com.

BODYWORK bodhi studio

BOTANICA Gypsy Janet Reverend Gypsy Janet has 30 years training and experience in SANTERIA and life long lessons in “Native American Ways” from her father, who is Mohawk. This is NOT your ordinary Botanica/Religious Supply Shop. Gypsy Janet makes unique Hand Crafted one-of-a-kind Spiritual Gifts, Ritual Supplies, Carved and Dressed 7 day candles. The shop is full of many surprises and there are also a Native American, Reggae, and Belly Dancer sections. Gypsy Janet also reads TAROT and TEA LEAVES, she can “Legally Marry” couples in NY State, and loves to personalize and setup your own SACRED ALTAR. Saturday, August 20, 2005 is the 3rd Annual Gyspy Psychic Fair. The shop is located at 100 Mill Hill Road, Woodstock, New York. (845) 679-2999.

CHI GONG/TAI CHI CHUAN Second Generation Yang Spiritual alchemy practices of ancient Taoist sorcerers yielded these two treasures of internal arts. Chi Gong prepared the body to withstand rigorous training and overcome the battle with time. Tai Chi Chuan became the expression of the energy in movement and self-defense. These practices have brought health, vitality, and youthfulness to myself and my students. The only requirement is determined practice of the principles and the will to persevere. Call Hawks, (845) 687-8721.

Chinese Healing Arts Center The Wu Tang Chuan Kung Association was founded by Doctor Tzu Kuo Shih and his family for the purpose of providing the American public with instruction in the ancient Chinese arts of Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Kung, and traditional Chinese Medicine.

264 Smith Avenue, Kingston. (845) 338-6045 or (203) 748-8107.

CHIROPRACTIC Nori Connell, RN, DC Nori combines 28 years as a registered nurse with 18 years of chiropractic experience to offer patients a knowledgeable approach to removing the interferences in the body that lead to disease. She combines accredited techniques such as NeuroEmotional technique, kinesiology, and Network Chiropractic to work with the body’s innate intelligence and its ability for healing. Dr. Connell also offers workshops on natural health care for the family and is also one of the directors of Alternatives Health Center of Tivoli. (845) 757-5555. Also at Rhinebeck Cooperative Health Center. (845) 876-5556.

Dr. David Ness Dr. David Ness is a Certified Active Release Techniques® (ART) Provider and Certified Chiropractic Sports Practitioner® specializing in helping athletes and active people quickly relieve their pain and heal their injuries. In addition to providing traditional ® chiropractic care, Dr. Ness utilizes ART to remove scar tissue and adhesions in order to restore mobility, flexibility, and strength faster than standard treatments will allow. If you have an injury that has not responded to treatment, call Dr. Ness for an appointment today. (845) 255-1200.

whole living directory

Through bodywork one can connect with the body’s own inherent wisdom and self healing abilities.

With skill, intuition, and care, we offer therapeutic massage, bodhiwork, Reiki, warm stone massage, aromatherapy, earconing, and a full range of ayurvedic treatments including Shirodara, Abyanga, and Swedna. Melinda Pizzano, LMT and Helen Andersson, D.Ay. Call for an appointment.

(518) 828-2233.

CHINESE HEALING ARTS

Dr. Bruce Schneider New Paltz, New York 12561.(845) 255-4424.

COLON HYDROTHERAPY Connie Schneider, Advanced Level I-ACT Certified Colon Hydrotherapist Colon Hydrotherapy is a safe, gentle, cleansing process. Clean and private office. A healthy functioning colon can decrease internal toxicity and improve digestion; basics for a healthy body. New Paltz, NY. (845) 256-1516. See display ad.

COUNSELING SERVICES Elizabeth Cunningham, MSC

CHILDBIRTH

Counselor, interfaith minister, and novelist, Elizabeth brings humor, compassion, and a deep understanding of story to a spirited counseling practice for individuals and couples. If you are facing loss, crisis in faith, creative block, conflict in relationship, Elizabeth invites you to become a detective and investigate your own unfolding mystery. 44 Schultzville Road, Staatsburg. (845) 266-4477. E-mail: medb44@aol.com.

Catskill Mountain Midwifery

CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY

See Midwifery.

Craniosacral Therapy Kary Broffman, RN, CH See Hypnotherapy.

Judy Joffee, CMN, MSN See Midwifery.

A gentle, hands-on method for enhancing the body’s own healing capabilities through the craniosacral rhythm. Craniosacral aids in the release of stress-related conditions such as anxiety, nervousness, insomnia, depression, digestive, menstrual,

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and other problems with organ function, breathing difficulties, and headaches. Increase energy, reduce pain, and improve immune system function. Effective for whiplash, TMJ, sciatica, fibromyalgia, scoliosis, arthritis, low back tension, and chronic pain. Also helpful for children with birth trauma, learning difficulties, chronic ear problems, and hyperactivity. Hudson Valley Therapeutic Massage, Michele Tomasicchio, LMT. (845) 255-4832.

The Sanctuary: A Place for Healing

DENTISTRY

HEALTH FOOD

The Center For Advanced Dentistry

Pleasant Stone Farm

Bruce D. Kurek, DDS, FAGD; Jaime O. Stauss, DMD Setting the standards for excellence in dentistry for more than 25 years, the Center for Advanced Dentistry attracts clients from throughout the northeast and abroad. Their client-centered approach to providing comprehensive dental services for adults and children includes “old school” care and concern combined with the latest technologies. The office is conveniently located 1.5 miles east of the NYS Thruway, exit 18. 494 Route 299, Highland. www.thecente rforadvanceddentistry.com. (845) 691-5600.

Fax (845) 691-8633.

130 Dolson Avenue, Middletown, NY. pleasantstonefarm@usa.net. (845) 343-4040.

FENG SHUI Healing By Design Feng Shui consultations, classes. Explore how Feng Shui can increase the flow of abundance, joy, and well-being in your life. Create your home or office to support your goals and dreams. Contact Betsy Stang at bebird@aol.com. or (845) 679-6347.

A quaint healing center in a quiet part of downtown New Paltz. Specializing in Craniosacral Therapy, Stress Point Release through Chiropractic, Swedish & Sports Massage, Shiatsu, and Energetic Reiki.

New offerings include meditation and nutritional counseling. 5 Academy Street, New Paltz. Call for an appointment. (845) 255-3337.

HEALTH PUBLICATIONS Hudson Valley Healthy Living A comprehensive directory of Mid-Hudson health services, products, and practitioners, along with articles on health issues of interest. Published biannually (April/October) by Luminary Publishing, Inc., the creators of Chronogram, 50,000 copies are distributed in the region throughout the year. Contents are also available on the Web at www.hvhealthyliving.com. See www.hvhealthyliving.com for advertising rates or call the HVHL sales team at (845) 334-8600.

HEALTHY EATING Cool Cover ™ See Business Directory: Food Serving Products.

HERBS

Guidance of Spirit, Wisdom of Heart

Monarda Herbal Apothecary

Heart-based Intuitive Healing, Karma Release with Crystals, Space Clearings & Blessings, Long Distance Healings, End-of –Life Transitions, Guided Meditation/visualization.Thursday evenings at 7:30pm. Self healing is a process of self-discovery.

Within the space of the heart discover what you need to heal. Kate DeChard M.Ed. The Soul Sanctuary, 6052 B Route 9, Rhinebeck, NY12572.

In honoring the diversity, uniqueness, and strength of nature for nourishment and healing, we offer organic and ecologically wildcrafted herbs using tradition as our guide. Certified Organic Alcohol Tinctures, Teas, Salves, Essential Oils, and more. Product Catalog $1.

Workshops and Internships. www.monarda.net (845) 688-2122.

Healing, Pathwork and Channeling

by Flowing Spirit Guidance It is our birthright to experience the abundance of the universe, the deep love of God, and our own divinity! It is also our birthright to share our own unique gifts with the world. We long to do it. So why don’t we? Our imperfections get in the way. As we purify, we experience more and more fully, the love and the abundance of God’s universe. We can have it in any moment. We can learn to purify our imperfections AND experience heaven on earth. Jaffe Institute Spiritual Healing; Pathwork; and Channeling available. Contact Joel Walzer for sessions.

(845) 679-8989. www.flowingspirit.com.

One Light Healing Touch: Healer Training School Join us for an empowering, life-changing, six-month, transformational training. This comprehensive program includes: Meditation, Visualization, Sound work, Breath work, Movement, Sacred Ceremony, Essential Grounding and Releasing Practices, and 33 Professional Healing Techniques. School starts September 23, 2005. Free special intro evening: Self-Healing with OLHT August 26 + September 9, 7:00-9:00pm; Special Introductory Weekend: Access Your Healing Potential August 27-28 and September 10 -11.

(NYSNA CEU’s available). Ron Lavin, MA, founder and director of the international OLHT schools, is a respected spiritual healer with 26 years of experience.

He heads seven OLHT schools in Germany and one in Rhinebeck, NY. He has worked with the NIH in Distance Healing for eight years. Appointments and Distance Healing sessions are available in Rhinebeck, NY. Call (845) 876-0259 or e-mail ronlavin@aol.com. www.OneLightHealingTouch.com.

HOLISTIC CENTERS

whole living directory

HEALTH & HEALING

Annette’s Heart and Soul Holistic Center Annette’s Heart and Soul is a non-profit, non-denominational ministry dedicated to helping you heal your heart and soul while enhancing your body. We have some of the most gifted spiritual counselors and body workers, who are fully trained in many areas. We offer fully accredited classes and much, much more. Twice a month we hold “Reunions,” getting in touch with those we have loved and lost.

500 Main Street, Beacon, NY 12508.(845) 440-0724.

HOLISTIC HEALTH Priscilla A. Bright, MA, Energy Healer/Counselor Specializing in women’s stress, emotional issues, and physical illness, including stress-related anxiety, depression, and physical burnout. Women in transition, businesswomen, mothers, all welcome.

Experienced counselor. Faculty, Barbara Brennan School of Healing. Convenient offices in Kingston & New Paltz. Initial phone consultation no charge.

(845) 688-7175.

John M. Carroll, Healer John Carroll is an intuitive healer, teacher, and spiritual counselor, who integrates mental imagery with the God-given gift of his hands. John has helped individuals suffering from acute and chronic disorders, including back problems and cancer. Remote healings and telephone sessions. Call for consultation. Kingston. (845) 338-8420.

Spirittus Holistic Resource Center See Workshops.

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HYPNOSIS One-Session Hypnosis with Frayda Kafka Building on my success with smoking cessation in 1978, I have continued to help clients with weight loss, pain, childbirth, stress, insomnia, habits, phobias, confidence, and almost any behavior you can think of… Known for my easy, light manner and quick results, I have an intuitive knack for saying just the right thing at the right time so that a major shift can be initiated. Phone hypnosis, gift certificates, and groups are available. Please call me at (845) 336-4646. Offices in Kingston and Pleasant Valley. info@CallTheHypnotist.com or www.CallThe Hypnotist.com.

HYPNOTHERAPY Achieve Your Goals with Therapeutic Hypnosis Sharon Slotnick, MS, CHt. Increase self-esteem; break bad habits; manage stress; alleviate pain (e.g. childbirth, headaches, back pain); overcome fears and depression; relieve insomnia; improve study habits, public speaking, sports performance; heal through past-life journeys, other issues. Sliding scale. Certified Hypnotherapist and Counselor, two years training Therapeutic Hypnosis& Traditional Psychotherapeutic Techniques.

(845) 389-2302. New Paltz, Kingston. See also Psychotherapy.

whole living directory

Kary Broffman, RN, CH A registered nurse with a BA in psychology since 1980, Kary is certified in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, Hypnobirthing, and Complementary Medical Hypnotherapy with the National Guild. She has also studied interactive imagery for nurses. By weaving her own healing journey and education into her work, she helps to assist others in accessing their inner resources and healing potential. Hudson Valley Healing Arts Center, Hyde Park. (845) 876-6753.

INTEGRATED ENERGY THERAPY Integrated Energy Therapy IET heals with the pure energy of SPIRIT and the gifts of the angels. Suppressed emotions, limiting beliefs, and past-life memories are cleared from the Energy Anatomy on a cellular level. Remember and LIVE the true expression of your soul’s purpose. Also combining Spiritual Guidance, IET, and Massage.

15 years experience. Dona Ho Lightsey, LMT, IET Master. New Paltz. www.learniet.com/dona_ho_ lightsey.asp. (845) 256-0443.

JIN SHIN-JYUTSU Kenneth Davis, CPLT See Psychotherapy.

MASSAGE THERAPY Joan Apter Offering luxurious massage therapy, including Raindrop Technique, with therapeutic essential oils to relieve stress, boost the immune system, and address system imbalances. Natural animal care, individual consultations for a healthy home and personal concerns, spa consultant, classes, and keynotes. Essential Oils, nutritional supplements, personal care, pet care, children’s and home cleaning products from Young Living Essential Oils. For more information, contact Joan Apter, CMT. (845) 679-0512. japter@ ulster.net. joanapter.younglivingworld.com.

bodhi studio See Bodywork.

Hudson Valley Therapeutic Massage Michele Tomasicchio, LMT, specializes in Integrative Massage—incorporation of various healing modalities: Swedish, Myofascial Deep Tissue, Craniosacral, and stretching to facilitate the body’s healing process. A session may include all or just one modality. No fault accepted. Gift certificates available. By appointment only. 243 Main Street, Suite 220 New Paltz. (845) 255-4832.

Shiatsu Massage Therapy Leigh Scott is a licensed Shiatsu Massage Therapist with 20 years experience and a former teacher at the Ohashi Institute in New York City.

Leigh uses her skills and knowledge of Shiatsu, as well as Reflexology and Polarity, to give a very satisfying hour-long massage. (845) 679-3012.

MEDITATION Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch See Yoga.

Zen Mountain Monastery

See Counseling Services.

Offering year-round retreats geared to all levels of experience: introductions to Zen meditation and practice; programs exploring Zen arts, Buddhist studies, and social action; and intensive meditation retreats. South Plank Road, Mt. Tremper.

(845) 688-2228.

Ione, Director, Ministry of Maat, Inc.

MIDWIFERY

INTERFAITH MINISTRIES Elizabeth Cunningham, MSC

Spiritual and Educational organization with goals of fostering world community. (845) 339-5776.

Reverend Kevin Kraft, Interfaith Minister Sacred Intimate Joyful. “Honor Tradition and Have the Ceremony You Want.” Together we develop a meaningful ceremony that expresses who you are while considering sensitive concerns. Personal attention to details ensures your needs are thoughtfully addressed and creates a joyful ceremony expressing your vision completely. Weddings, Unions, Renewals, Rites of Passage, and Spiritual Counseling. Hudson Valley Interfaith Fellowship.

89 N. Front Street, Kingston. (845) 338-8313.

E-mail: Kevin@spirittus.org.

JEWISH MYSTICISM/KABBALAH Chabad of Woodstock Providing Jewish people from all backgrounds the opportunity to experience the depth and soul of the

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Jewish teachings and vibrant way of life. Offering Jewish resources, workshops, gatherings, and classes. Rabbi Yisroel Arye and Ilana Gootblatt, co-directors. (845) 679-6407. www.chabadof woodstock.com.

Catskill Mountain Midwifery, Home Birth Services Give birth as you wish, in an environment in which you feel nurtured and secure; where your emotional well-being, privacy, and personal preferences are respected. Be supported by a tradition that trusts the natural process. Excellent MD consult, hospital backup. (845) 687-BABY.

Homebirth and Gynecology Practice of Judy Joffee, CNM This practice offers a unique and exquisite opportunity for woman care in a powerfully compassionate and sacred manner. I offer complete prenatal care focused toward homebirth. For the nonpregnant woman, individualized gynecological care, counseling, and self-determination await you. Also offering school, work, and general physicals for all ages. Call for consultation.

(845) 255-2096.

P ILATES OF NEW PALTZ

From functional fitness to athletic performance Fully certified staff

SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PACKAGE 4 Private Sessions $172 Elise Bacon, Director

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12 n. chestnut st. New Paltz

845-255-0559

www.pilatesnewpaltz.com

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NATURAL FOODS Sunflower Natural Foods Market At Sunflower we know the food we eat is our greatest source of health. Sunflower carries certified organic produce, milk, cheeses, and eggs; non-irradiated herbs and spices; clean, pure organic products to support a healthy lifestyle; large selection of homeopathic remedies. Sunflower Natural Foods is a complete natural foods market. Open 9am-9pm daily. 10am-7pm Sundays. Bradley Meadows Shopping Center, Woodstock.(845) 679-5361.

NATURAL HEALING Suzanne Meszoly & Associates, Inc. 174 Palentown Road, Kerhonkson, New York 12446.

(845) 626-5666.

NATUROPATHIC MEDICINE Naturopathic Medicine

whole living directory

Dr. Thomas J. Francescott, ND. Free Your Mind – Release Your Body – Energize Your Spirit! Solve health issues, enhance wellness, and gain awareness. Scientifically proven naturopathic solutions for challenging and/or chronic health concerns. I offer naturopathic expertise in a sacred space to help you feel better. Graduate of the prestigious Bastyr University. Call Rhinebeck Cooperative Health Center: (845) 876-5556. www.drfrancescott.com.

Women Care Center Empowerment through information. Located in Rhinebeck and Kingston. Massage and acupuncture available. Gynecology—treating our patients through the most up-to-date medical and surgical technologies available, combined with alternative therapies. Obstetrics—working with you to create the birth experience you desire. Many insurances accepted. Evening hours available. Rhinebeck (845)876-2496. Kingston (845) 338-5575.

PILATES Pilates of New Paltz

NUTRITION

We are a fully equipped studio of certified, experienced, caring instructors with the knowledge to challenge students while respecting their limitations (injury/illness, age, etc.). We are offering a specialpackage price for four introductory lessons and offer small group reformer classes and mat classes.

We are open 6 days a week with a very flexible appointment schedule. (845) 255-0559.

Jill Malden, RD, CSW

PSYCHOLOGISTS

Prominent Nutritionist specializing in eating behavior and eating disorders for 15 years. Warm, nonjudgmental treatment. Understand the effects of nutrition on your mood, anxiety level, cravings, concentration, energy level, and sleep, in addition to body weight.

Recover from your eating issues and enjoy a full life!

199 Main Street, New Paltz. (845) 489-4732.

NUTRITIONAL COUNSELING

James Cancienne, PhD Licensed Clinical Psychologist offering adult psychotherapy and couples counseling. Jungianbased psychotherapy for people in crisis, those with ongoing mental health difficulties, and those wishing to expand their personality and gain greater satisfaction from their relationships and work. Some insurance accepted and sliding scale. Hudson.

(518) 828-2528.

Hopewell Nutrition Center Are you doing the best you can for your body? Are you living the lifestyle that promotes optimal health?

Are you ready to take charge of your nutritional health status? Our nutritionist team holds graduate degrees in human nutrition, and are New York State licensed and certified in nutrition. We offer comprehensive one-on-one nutritional consultation that will assist you in weight management, heart disease, blood sugar disorders, chronic fatigue, eating disorders, cancer, women’s health and wellness, GI disorders, and other health issues. Hopewell Nutrition Center, 129 Clove Branch Road, Hopewell Junction, NY. Free consultations. (845) 223-5940.

OSTEOPATHY Applied Osteopathy Joseph Tieri, DO, & Ari Rosen, DO. Drs. Tieri and Rosen are New York State Licensed Osteopathic physicians specializing in Cranial Osteopathy. As specialists in Osteopathic manipulation, we are dedicated to the traditional philosophy and hands-on treatment of our predecessors. We have studied with Robert Fulford, DO, Viola Freyman, DO, James Jealous, DO, and Bonnie Gintis, DO, and completed a two-year residency in Osteopathic Manipulation.

We treat newborns, children, and adults. 257 Main Street, New Paltz, (845) 256-9884. 138 Market Street, Rhinebeck, (845) 876-1700. By Appointment. For more info call or visit www.appliedosteopathy.com.

Carla J. Mazzeo, PhD Licensed Clinical Psychologist offering psychodynamic psychotherapy for adolescents and adults.

I have experience working with trauma, mood disturbances, sexual assault, depression, anxiety, grief/bereavement, eating/body image difficulties, alcohol/substance concerns, teenage problems, relationship difficulties, sexuality issues, or general self-exploration. Dream work also available. New Paltz location. (845) 255-2259. Reduced fee for initial consultation.

Mark L. Parisi, PhD Licensed psychologist. Offering individual psychotherapy for adults. Specializing in gay men’s issues, anxiety, depression, relationship concerns, adjustment, issues related to aging, disordered eating, body image, sexual identity, and personal growth.

Medicare and some insurance accepted. 52 South Manheim Boulevard, New Paltz. (845) 255-2259.

Jonathan D. Raskin, PhD Licensed psychologist. Insight-oriented, meaningbased, problem-focused, person-centered psychotherapy for adults and adolescents facing problems including, but not limited to, self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, life transitions, family issues, career concerns, depression, anxiety, loneliness, and bereavement. 199 Main Street, New Paltz. Free initial consultation. Sliding scale. (845) 257-3471.

PHYSICIANS

PSYCHOTHERAPY

Aruna Bakhru, MD,FACP

Kent Babcock, MSW, CSW Counseling & Psychotherapy

Dr. Bakhru is board certified in internal Medicine and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians.

She also offers energy medicine by measuring the

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energy flow at the meridians. Herbal, homeopathic, nutritional, or flower remedies can be found, and tailor-made for your individual needs. It takes the guesswork out of spending hundreds of dollars at the health food store with out knowing if the product is helpful to you. Toxic emotions, thought patterns, chakra imbalances, dental issues can be identified and dealt with. Hidden toxins, energetic imprints of past infections, vaccinations, etc. can be uncovered. Poughkeepsie (845) 463-1044.

Development of solutions through simple selfobservation, reflection, and conversation. Short- or

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long-term work around difficult relationships; life or career transitions; ethical, spiritual, or psychic dilemmas; and creative blocks. Roots in yoga, dreamwork, spiritual psychology, and existential psychotherapy.

Sliding scale. Offices in Woodstock and Uptown Kingston. (845) 679-5511 x4.

Circle: an adult bereavement group offering a safe place to begin the healing process after the death of a loved one. Most insurances accepted. Located in New Paltz. (914) 706-0229.

Irene Humbach, CSW, CBT See Body-Centered Therapy.

Heather Bergen, LMSW Holistic, heart-centered psychotherapy for adults, adolescents, and children. Healing process through dreamwork, art therapy, play therapy (for children), and spirituality by connecting to inner wisdom and highest self. Specializing in work with women.

Rhinebeck, New York.l (845) 220-8602.

Judith Blackstone, MA Subtle Self Work is a transformative practice integrating nondual spiritual realization, psychological healing, and awakening the energy/light body. Private sessions for individuals and couples, weekly classes, monthly meditation retreats, teacher/certification trainings. Judith Blackstone, MA, author of The Enlightenment Process and Living Intimately, director of Realization Center, Woodstock. www.Realization Center.com. (845) 679-7005.

Ione Author and psychotherapist: Qigong, Meditation, Hypnotherapy, and Dreams. Specializing in the creative process. Healing retreats, Local and Worldwide.

(845) 339-5776.

Elise Lark, LCSW, LMT Acorn Hill Healing Arts SYNtegration Therapy utilizes acupressure point and muscular releases, sensation awareness, active imagination, and body-centered dialogue to explore physical symptoms, behavioral patterns, and inner conflicts. Fast-acting, highly effective, it will give you the practical tools, insight, and direction needed to move forward in your life, now. Olivebridge (845) 657-2516.

Adele Marcus,LCSW-R, ACHT Debra Budnik, CSW-R Traditional insight-oriented psychotherapy for long- or short-term work. Aimed at identifying and changing self-defeating attitudes and behaviors, underlying anxiety, depression, and relationship problems.

Sliding scale, most insurances accepted, including Medicare/Medicaid. NYS-licensed. Experience working with trauma victims, including physical and sexual abuse. Educator on mental health topics. Located in New Paltz, one mile from SUNY. (845) 255-4218.

Dr. Nancy Rowe, PhD, CET Heart Centered Counseling & Expressive Arts Therapy

Deep Clay with Michelle Rhodes ATR-BC, LMSW. Individual, couple, parent and child, and group arts-based psychotherapy. “Dreamfigures” Clay Psychotherapy group for women. Expressive clay group and individual sessions for children and teens.

A unique, creative, and grounding approach for crisis management, transitions, and deep healing.

Sessions in Gardiner and NYC. (845) 417-1369. deepclay@mac.com.

Emotional healing for children and adults using talk, imagery, sandplay, expressive arts, and/or movement. Background in transpersonal psychology, play therapy, family therapy, spiritual guidance, authentic movement, and expressive arts therapy. Offices in Woodstock and Kingston. Call Nancy, Call (845) 679-4827. www.wisdomheart.com.

Peter M. del Rosario, PhD

With combination of “talk” therapy for self-knowledge and hypnotherapy to transform negative, self-defeating thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Faster symptom relief. Feel better and make healthier choices. Sliding scale, Certified Hypnotherapist and Counselor. (845) 389-2302. New Paltz, Kingston.

See also Hypnotherapy.

Licensed psychologist. Insight-oriented, culturally sensitive psychotherapy for adults and adolescents concerned with: relationship difficulties, codependency, depression, anxiety, sexual/physical trauma, grief and bereavement, eating disorders, dealing with divorce, gay/lesbian issues. 199 Main Street, New Paltz. Free initial consult. Sliding scale. (914) 262-8595.

Change Your Outlook, Heal, and Grow Sharon Slotnick, MS, CHt.

Richard Smith, CSW-R, CASAC

Holistically-oriented therapist offering counseling, psychotherapy, and hypnotherapy. Specializing in issues pertaining to relationships, personal growth, life transitions, alternative lifestyles, childhood abuse, codependency, addiction, recovery illness, and grief.

Some insurance accepted. Office convenient to New Paltz and surrounding areas. (845) 883-9642.

Potential-Centered Therapy (PCT) alters thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that block growth. A psycho-dynamic approach incorporating NLP, EMDR, and hypnosis, PCT resolves addictions, trauma, limiting beliefs, and destructive behaviors. Twenty years experience and a gentle spirit guide you through an accelerated process of profound healing. Gardiner.(845) 256-6456. richardsmith csw@earthlink.net.

Eidetic Image Therapy

Judy Swallow, MA, TEP

A fast moving, positive psychotherapy that gets to problem areas quickly and creates change by using eidetic (eye-DET-ic) images to promote insight and growth. The eidetic is a bright, lively picture seen in the mind like a movie or filmstrip. It is unique in its ability to reproduce important life events in exact detail, revealing both the cause and solution of problem areas. Dr. Toni Nixon, EdD, director. Port Ewen.

(845) 339-1684.

Integrative body/mind therapist using Rubenfeld synergy and psychodrama in her work with individuals, couples, groups, and families. Inquire for workshops and training, as well as therapy. New Paltz.

(845) 255-5613.

Rachael Diamond, CSW,CHt

Amy R. Frisch, CSWR Psychotherapist. Individual, family, and group sessions for adolescents and adults. Currently accepting registration for It’s a Girl Thing: an expressive arts therapy group for adolescent girls, and The Healing

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Deep Clay Art and Therapy

Life Design: Creative Healing. Heart/Body/Mindcentered psychotherapy. Gestalt, Hypnotherapy, Expressive Arts. Fifteen years experience working with adults/youth, families, and groups; anxiety/fear, depression, abuse/trauma, addictions, grief, spirituality. Honoring the Soul women’s group/workshops; expressive movement classes. New Paltz. (845) 255-9717. lidesign@earthlink.net.

Wellspring Evolutionary coaching using movement and breath to access and clear lifelong patterns and transform relationships. Rodney and Sandra Wells, certified by Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks. (845) 534-7668.

Julie Zweig, MA New Paltz, New York 12561.jzweig@earthlink.net or call (845) 255-3566.

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REBIRTHING

STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION

Susan DeStefano

Hudson Valley Structural Integration

Heart-centered therapy for healing the body, mind, and emotions. Improve relationships, release the past, heal the inner child through personal empowerment.(845) 255-6482.

Structural integration is a form of soft tissue manipulation based on the lifelong work of Dr. Ida P. Rolf.

It is a process-oriented whole systems approach that seeks to improve one’s health and vitality by balancing the body and re-establishing appropriate relationships. Benefits include feeling lighter, more energy, greater freedom of movement, relief from chronic pain, and positive psychological effects. We offer a safe place for exploration and work with sensitivity and compassion. Krisha Showalter and Ryan Flowers are certified practitioners of the KMI method.

Rhinebeck,(845) 876-4654.

SCHOOLS & TRAINING Institute of Transpersonal Psychology ITP is an accredited graduate psychology school offering clinical and nonclinical certificates, MA and PhD degrees. The curriculum combines mind, body, and spiritual inquiry with scholarly research and self discovery. Graduates have strong clinical skills and can communicate in a variety of complex relational circumstances. (650) 493-4430. itpinfo@itp.edu. www.itp.edu.

SHIATSU Leigh Scott

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See Massage Therapy.

TAROT CARD READING Tarot Card Reading Need some direction in your life? Have a question that needs to be answered? Call Melissa for a confidential tarot card reading. Melissa is available for solo readings as well as private and corporate parties. Call Melissa today at 845-728-8474. Reasonable rates.

SPAS & RESORTS

Tarot-on-the-Hudson Rachel Pollack

The Spa at Emerson Place

Exploratory, experiential play with the Tarot as oracle and sacred tool, in a monthly class, with Certified Tarot Grand Master and international Tarot author Rachel Pollack. All levels welcome. Tarot Readings in person or by phone. Appointment/Info: rachel@ rachelpollack.com.(845) 876-5797. Rhinebeck. Also see ad.

The Emerson Spa is open! This Asian-inspired design invites guests into an oasis of relaxation that is surrounded my the Catskills’ pastoral beauty. Individually-tailored treatments are created by the European-trained staff who are skilled at delivering virtually all the Emerson Spa’s 40+ treatments. Men and women alike will enjoy the personalized attention they recieve while enjoying experiences such as Ayruvedic Rituals, Aromatherapy Massage, Deep-Tissue and Four-Hand Massage, Hot Stone Therapy and Detoxifying Algae Wraps. Call (845) 688-1000 or visit our website at: www.emersonplace.com.

Jenkinstown Day Spa 45 Jenkinstown Road, New Paltz, NY 12561.

(845) 255-3160.

SPIRITUAL Bioenergetics/Hands-On Healing, Irene Humbach, CSW, CBT See Body-Centered Therapy.

Healing, Pathwork and Channeling

by Flowing Spirit Guidance It is our birthright to experience the abundance of the universe, the deep love of God, and our own divinity!

It is also our birthright to share our own unique gifts with the world. We long to do it. So why don’t we?

Our imperfections get in the way. As we purify, we experience more and more fully, the love and the abundance of God’s universe. We can have it in any moment. We can learn to purify our imperfections AND experience heaven on earth. Jaffe Institute Spiritual Healing; Pathwork; and Channeling available. Contact Joel Walzer for sessions.

Call (845) 679-8989 or visit our website at: www.flowingspirit.com.

Ione Egyptian Mysteries, Scarab Teachings™, Journeys to Sacred Sites. (845) 339-5776.

New York Region Pathwork The Pathwork is a way of life, a community of seekers, a school, and a philosophy. It is based in a profound set of teachings channeled over a 30-year period by Eva Pierrakos that show a way to live in this world with complete inner freedom and happiness. Learn more at Pathworkny.org, or (845) 688-2211.

THERAPY Toni D. Nixon, EdD Therapist and Buddhist Practitioner Offering a unique combination of techniques that integrate therapeutic goals & spiritual practice. The basic principles of Buddhism and psychotherapy are concerned with the goal of ending human suffering. Both paths to liberation are through greater self-awareness, a broader view of one’s world, the realization of the possibility of freedom, and finding the means to achieve it. In essence, effective psychotherapy moves toward liberation, and Buddhist practice is therapeutic in nature. Eidetic Image therapy is a unique and powerful method that encourages the liberation of the mind and spirit from obstacles that block the way to inner peace. Specializing in life improvement skills, habit cessation, career issues, women’s issues, & blocked creativity.

By phone, online, and in person. (845) 339-1684. www.eidetictherapy.com.

VEGAN LIFESTYLES Andrew Glick Certified Holistic Health Counselor/ Vegan Lifestyle Coach The single most important step an individual can take to help save the planet’s precious resources, improve and protect one’s health, and to stop the senseless slaughter of over 50 billion animals a year...is to Go Vegan. What could make you feel better about yourself than knowing you are helping the planet, your own health, and the lives of countless animals all at the same time? If the idea is haunting and seems undoable to you, then let your personal Vegan Lifestyle Coach take you through steps A to Z. Whether you’re a cattle rancher eating meat three times a day or a lacto-vegetarian wanting to give up dairy, it’s a process that can be fun, easy and meaningful. You can do it easily with the proper support, guidance and encouragement from your Vegan Lifestyle Coach. (845) 679-7979. andy@meatfreezone.org or www.meatfreezone.org. See display ad.

Healthy Gourmet To Go Spirittus Holistic Resource Center See Workshops.

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Try our colossal coconut macaroons dipped in dark chocolate or our delectable pan-seared cornmeal

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crusted homemade seitan cutlets over rosemary smashed potatoes with mushroom gravy. From oldfashioned home cooking with a new healthful twist to live/raw foods and macrobiotics, HGTG has dishes to please every palate. Weekly Meal Delivery right to your door. Organic, vegan, kosher. Baby Registry.

Gift Certificates. Catering. www.carrottalk.com.

(845) 339-7171.

WEDDINGS & COUNSELING Reverend Kevin Kraft, Interfaith Minister See Interfaith Ministries.

WORKSHOPS

YOGA Jai Ma Yoga Center Offering a wide array of Yoga classes, seven days a week, from Gentle/Restorative Yoga to Advanced.

Meditation classes free to all enrolled. Chanting Friday evenings. New expanded studio space. Private consultations and Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy sessions available. Gina Bassinette, RYT & Ami Hirschstein, RYT, Owners. New Paltz.

(845) 256-0465.

The Living Seed Sivananda Yoga offered five days a week. Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize–Sivananda.

521 Main Street (Rte. 299, across from Econo Lodge), New Paltz. (845) 255-8212.

Back to Basics at “The Barn” Life Transformational Metaphysical Workshop Series begins August 5 in Gardener. Set in idyllic location - 130-year old renovated barn abutting Shawangunk Mountains, Author, Hand Analyst/Life Coach shares joyous process of Evolving Consciously. Discover your Life Purpose/Life Lesson through your unchangeable Soul Goal hidden in your unique fingerprint patterns! To register for this workshop, call (845) 256-1294 or visit our website at www.terrasoleil.com/workshops.

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Spirittus Holistic Resource Center The Spirittus Holistic Resource Center is a healing environment where people gather to explore Spirituality, Health, and Holistic Living. Each month we host 25 + workshops. Weekly meditation, monthly Nutrition, Astrology, and Reiki Study groups. We have a private healing room offering Reiki, Counseling, Hypnotherapy, and CranioSacral Therapy. We provide access to a holistic library, holistic referral network, and the holistic gift shop.

89 North Front Street, Kingston, New York. Visit our website at: www.spirittus.org or call (845) 338-8313.

Kevin@spirittus.org.

StoneWater Sanctuary See Holistic Wellness Centers.

WOMEN’S GROUPS Honoring the Soul with Adele Marcus, LCSW-R, ACHT See Psychotherapy.

WOMEN’S HEALTH Women’s Health & Fitness Expo womensexpo@hotmail.com. (845) 338-7140.

WORKSHOPS Free Introductory Session to In Search of Your Myth Have you ever asked yourself, “Why can’t I really change?” What is the lens through which I see the world? What is inadvertently repeated within? Your perception of life is with you from birth and sets up the patterns you repeat indefinitely. They take form as something so unquestionable that you fuse with them and name them “myself.” These interpretations which you take as facts are distorted experiences that are called your myth. The work of *KAIROS is about the discovery of your myth and uplifting the quality of your life thereafter. KAIROS YOGA OF TRANSFORMATION weekend personalized workshops integrate several fields of knowledge: psychological astrology, contemplation, theater, art, mythology and yoga. The KAIROS work is not something you do, it is something you live.

KAIROS: The Yoga of Transformation offers a FREE Introductory Session of In Search of Your Myth on Sunday, October 9, 2-5pm. *KAIROS means the quality of the moment. Learn more at our website www.kairosyoga.com or call Glen Wild Yoga Center (845) 436-0122.

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Satya Hudson Valley Yoga Center Satya Hudson Valley Yoga Center is located in the heart of Rhinebeck village, on the third floor of the Rhinebeck Department Store building. We offer classes for all levels, 7 days a week. There is no need to pre-register: we invite you to just show up. For more information, visit www.hudsonvalleyyoga.com or call (845) 876-2528

Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch 77 acres of rolling hills and woodlands. Breathtaking views, hiking, and cross-country ski trails, organic garden, swimming pond, and sauna. Daily Sivananda Ashram Schedule of Yoga Asanas, Pranayama, and Meditation. Year-round Yoga vacations. Weekend Workshops on health, Yoga, and meditation.

Karma Yoga residential programs. Yoga Teachers Training, September 7-October 5. Founded in 1974

by Swami Vishnu-Devananda. Woodbourne, NY. (845) 436-6492. YogaRanch@Sivanan-da.org or www.sivananda.org/ranch.htm.

Yoga on Duck Pond Grounded in the alignment of the inner and outer body, yoga can reduce your stress, reshape your body, recharge your mind. “Working with Donna is a spiritual and physical adventure for me. I experience a renewed sense of well-being, increased mobility, clarity of mind, and a natural diet adjustment. She is helping me change my life.” –Carlo Travaglia, sculptor. Donna Nisha Cohen, director and certified instructor, over 20 years experience. Stone Ridge.

Classes Sunday through Friday. Call for times, and information on pre-natal and private sessions.

(845) 687-4836.

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Dana Byrne, LMT Helen Gutfreund, LMT Carla Knauf, LMT Kay McCutcheon, LMT Tina Novick, LMT

Trish Ratel, LMT Michael Stern, LMT Joan Tarshis, LMT Donna Wisnewski, LMT Alice Velkey, LMT Karen Verderber, LMT

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Chronogramskin1 Ad 1/8 Size (3.5 x 4”) Questions? Call Michelle Crossley @ 255-1856 WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE TOLD...

LET US HELP YOU LOVE YOUR SKIN. � Discounted Public Clinics � Supervised by NYS Licensed Instructors THE MOST ADVANCED SCHOOL OF IT'S KIND IN THE UNITED STATES.

256 Main Street New Paltz 845.255.0013 www.HVSAesthetics.com

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Monarda Herbal Apothecary Join us for medicine making and herbal studies in our outdoor classroom along the beautiful Esopus Creek.

2005 Herbal Internships Seasonal Herbal Workshops Weekday & Weekend Sessions Beginning in May 2005 with Jennifer Costa, Herbalist

Monarda Offers: FULL HERBAL PRODUCTS LINE CERTIFIED ORGANIC ALCOHOL TINCTURES PRIVATE CONSULTATIONS

Website Herbal Catalog: www.monarda.net E-mail: monarda@hvc.rr.com (845) 688-2122 PRINTED HERBAL PRODUCTS CATALOG: SEND $1 TO

1305 Old Route 28 Phoenicia, New York 12464

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Painting, Sculpture, Comic Book Art, Yoga, and Music

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Enroll Now! Fall Classes Start Sept.

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business directory ACTING

ART SUPPLIES

Sande Shurin Acting Classes

Catskill Art & Office Supply

Revolutionary new acting technique for Film/Stage/ TV. The book: Transformational Acting...A Step Beyond, Limelight Editions. The technique: Transform into character using current emotions. No recall.

No forward imagining. Shurin private coaches many celebrities. The classes: Thursday eves. at 7pm, Woodstock. Master classes at the Times Square Sande Shurin Theatre. (917) 545-5713 or (212) 262-6848.

Traditional fine art materials, studio furnishings, office products, journals, cards, maps, and gifts.

Creative services, too, at all three locations: photo processing, custom printing, rubber stamps, color copies, custom picture framing, and full-color digital output. Pushing the envelope and creative spirit for over 20 years. Woodstock store: (845) 679-2251; Kingston (845) 331-7780; Poughkeepsie (845) 452-1250.

ANTIQUE RESTORATION

Manny’s

Antique Clock Repair and Restoration Specializing in Grandfather clocks, Tubular chime clocks, European, Atmos and Carriage Clocks, Antique Music boxes. Pickup and delivery. House calls available. Free estimates. One year warranty. References available. For appointment call Ian D.Pomfret at (845) 687-9885 or email idp1@verizon.net.

ARCHITECTURE DiGuiseppe Architecture

ART CENTERS

R & F Handmade Paints Internationally known manufacturer of Pigment Sticks and Encaustic paint right here in the Hudson Valley. Stop in for a tour of our factory, get paints at discounted prices, sign up for an Encaustic or Pigment Stick workshop, or check out bi-monthly exhibits in the Gallery. Open MondaySaturday 10am-5pm. 506 Broadway, Kingston.

(845) 331-3112. www.rfpaints.com.

ART THERAPY Deep Clay Art and Therapy with Michelle Rhodes ATR-BC, LMSW See Psychotherapy in Whole Living Guide.

ATTORNEYS Schneider, Pfahl & Rahmé, LLP

The Living Seed Yoga Center offers Sivananda Yoga classes 7 days a week. All levels and ages welcome. Morning meditations are free. Yoga Day 2nd & 4th Sundays. Sauna. Art Gallery. Dance.

Drum. Workshops. And so much more. Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize Sivananda.

521 Main St. (Route 299) New Paltz (845) 255-8212. ww.thelivingseed.com.

Manhattan law firm with offices in Woodstock, provides legal services to individuals, institutions, professional firms, companies, and family businesses. Specific areas include: Real Estate, Estate Planning, Corporate, New Media and Arts, and Entertainment Law. Each matter is attended to by a senior attorney who develops a comprehensive legal plan with the client. (845) 679-9868 or (212) 629-7744. See website www.nycrealestateattorneys.com or www.schneiderpfahl.com.

ART CLASSES

AUTOMOTIVE

Ceramic Classes

Roberti Motor Cars

Develop your creativity and learn the art of clay in a small Saturday class for adults with any experience level. Classes are taught by Doris Licht in a large, working pottery studio with gas kiln. Learn handbuilding, wheelthrowing, decorating, glazing, and kiln firing. Visit the showroom by appointment.

Phone:(845) 679-5620.

Specializing in previously owned SAABs. Over 150 pre-owned SAABs in stock at all times.

Authorized SAAB service center. Large selection of new and used SAAB parts available. Prices range from $1,500 to $25,000. All cars warranteed bumper to bumper. (845) 339-SAAB. 385 Foxhall Avenue, Kingston, NY. www.roberti.com.

ART GALLERIES

BEVERAGES

Van Brunt Gallery

Esotec

Exhibiting the work of contemporary artists.

Featuring abstract painting, sculpture, digital art, photography, and video, the gallery has new shows each month. The innovative gallery Web site, www.vanbruntgallery.com, has online artist portfoliosand videos of the artists discussing their work. 460 Main Street, Beacon, NY 12508. (845) 838-2995.

Choose Esotec to be your wholesale beverage provider. For 20 years we’ve carried a complete line of natural, organic, and unusual juices, spritzers, waters, sodas, iced teas, and iced coffees. If you are a store owner, call for details or a catalog of our full line. sales@esotecltd.com. or www.esotecltd.com. (845) 246-0965.

The Living Seed

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Inspired, Sensitive, and Luxurious…these are the words that describe the quintessential design work that is DiGuiseppe. The firm, with Design Studios in Accord, New York City, and Boca Raton, provides personalized Architecture and Interiors for each and every client. Whether the project is a Sensitive Historic Renovation, a Hudson Valley Inspired Home or Luxurious Interiors, each project receives the attention of the firm’s principal, Anthony J. DiGuiseppe, AIA RIBA, an internationally published architect and award-winning furniture designer. Accord (845) 687-8989, New York City (212) 439-9611 diarcht@msn.com, www.diguiseppe.com.

Since 1962, big city selection and small town service have made Manny’s special. We offer a full range of art materials, custom picture framing, bookmaking supplies, and the best selection of handmade and decorative papers north of Manhattan. Manny’s, it’s more than just an art store.

83 Main Street, New Paltz. (845) 255-9902.

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Leisure Time Spring Water Pure spring water from a natural artesian spring located in the Catskill Mountains. The spring delivers water at 42oF year-round. The water is filtered under high pressure through fine white sand. Hot and cold dispensers available. Weekly delivery. (845) 331-0504.

BOOKSTORES Alternative Books Fine used and out-of-print books, and new books from great local presses. Tens of thousands of handpicked beauties you won’t find at the mall. Art monographs, poetry, signed and first edition fiction, Americana and regional history. Hundreds of current magazine titles and unusual journals. We have the largest collection of French language books in the region. Children’s books, film, music, theatre, dance, spirituality, esoterics, classics, humanities, sciences, travel, home, garden, cookbooks.

More. We travel from town to town searching through attics to fill our store just for you. We also buy books at the counter. Special orders, book searches, libraries purchased. 35 North Front Street in lovely uptown Kingston, at the head of Wall Street. Open 7 days 11-5, occasionally more.(845) 331-5439.

Barner Books Used books. From kitsch to culture, Thoreau to thrillers, serious and silly.

We have the books you read. Monday - Saturday 10-7pm, Sunday 12-6pm. Located at 69 Main Street, New Paltz, NY. (845) 255-2635.

E-mail: barnerbk@ulster.net.

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The Golden Notebook A feast for book lovers located in the heart of Woodstock, we are proud to be a part of Book Sense: Independent Bookstores for Independent Minds. In addition to our huge database, we can special order any book in or out of print. Our Children’s Store located right next door has an extensive selection of books and products exclusively for the under-14 set. We also carry the complete line of Woodstock Chimes.

25-29 Tinker Street, Woodstock. (845) 679-8000, fax (845) 679-3054. thegoldennotebook@hvc.rr.com. www.goldennotebook.com.

Mirabai of Woodstock The Hudson Valley’s oldest spiritual/holistic bookstore, providing a vast array of books, music, and gifts that transform, renew, and elevate the spirit. Exquisite statuary and other art works from Nepal, Tibet, Bali.

Expert Tarot reading, astrological charts/interpretation available. 23 Mill Hill Road, Woodstock. (845) 679-2100. www.mirabai.com.

CARPETS / RUGS Anatolia Tribal Rugs & Weavings Direct importers since 1981–Natural-dyed Afghan carpets; Balouchi tribal kilims; Russian sumaks; antique Caucasian carpets; silk Persian sumaks; Turkish kilims. Hundreds to choose from 2’x3’ to 9’x12’. Kilim pillows, $20-$55. We encourage customers to try our rugs in their homes without obligation. Open 6 days a week 12-6pm. Closed Tuesdays.

MC/Visa/AmEx. 54G Tinker Street, Woodstock.(845) 679-5311.

CHILDREN’S ART CLASSES The School for Young Artists An Extraordinary Art Experience! The School for Young Artists provides you with the tools, materials, instruction and support to achieve your goals. Our studio is about the joy of learning and the power of making art. Classes and individual sessions for children and adults. Call Kathy Anderson (845) 679-9541.

CINEMA Upstate Films Great International Cinema. Contemporary & Classic. 26 Montgomery Street, Rhinebeck. (845) 876-2515. www.upstatefilms.com.

CLOTHING Haldora Haldora, a family name from Iceland meaning Goddess of the Mountains. Haldora designs a lifestyle in women’s clothing and scarves— styles which are timeless, understated, and have a forgiving elegance.

She designs and cuts her own line, then sends it to her seamstress where it is sewn locally in New York State. Her fabrics are mostly natural, including many kinds of silk, linens, and cotton in many colors, with wool added in winter. Also at Haldora, you will find other complimentary lines. In season, she has wool, cotton, and cashmere sweaters, which include Margaret O’Leary and Kincross Cashmere. Haldora carries a full line of Hanro of Switzerland undergarments and sleepwear. Shoes

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are also important to finish your look. Some of the lines carried are Arche, Lisa Nading, and Gentle Souls. Haldora also carries jewelry in a wide range of prices. Open Daily. 28 East Market Street, Rhinebeck, New York. (845) 876-6250. www.haldora.com.

COLLEGES Dutchess Community College Dutchess Community College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, was founded in 1957. The College offers an educational policy of access, quality, opportunity, diversity, and social responsibility. DCC’s main campus in Poughkeepsie is situated on 130 scenic acres with facilities that are aesthetically pleasing and technologically advanced. The College has a satellite campus, Dutchess South, in Wappinger Falls, and learning centers in Carmel, Staatsburg, and Pawling.

(845) 431-8020. www.sunydutchess.edu.

Mount Saint Mary College An independent liberal arts college offering more than 30 undergraduate programs; graduate programs in business (MBA), education, and nursing; and noncredit courses. 2,500 women and men. Its beautiful campus overlooks the Hudson River and is conveniently located off I-84 in Newburgh. (845) 569-3222. www.msmc.edu.

CONSIGNMENT SHOPS Past ‘n’ Perfect A quaint consignment boutique that offers distinctive clothing, jewelry, shoes, and accessories, and a unique variety of high quality furs and leathers. Always a generous supply of merchandise from casual to chic, contemporary to vintage, with sizes from infant to adult. Featuring a diverse and illuminating jewelry collection. Open Tuesday to Friday 10am-5pm, and Saturday 10am-4pm. Conveniently located at 1629 Main Street (Route 44), Pleasant Valley, NY–only 9 miles east of the Mid-Hudson Bridge. (845) 635-3115. www.pastnperfect.com.

Designer consignments of the utmost quality for men, women, and children. Current styles, jewelry accessories, and knickknacks. Featuring beautiful furs and leathers. Open Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm, and Sunday 12-5pm. Located at 23G Village Plaza, Rhinebeck, NY 12572.

(845) 876-2939.

COSMETIC & PLASTIC SURGERY M. T. Abraham, MD Facial Plastic, Reconstructive & Laser Surgery, PLLC. Dr. Abraham is one of few surgeons double board certified and fellowship trained exclusively in Facial Plastic Surgery. He is an expert in the latest minimally invasive and non-surgical techniques (Botox™, Restylane™, Thermage™, Photofacial™), and also specializes in functional nasal surgery.

Offices in Poughkeepsie, Fishkill, & Rhinebeck with affiliated MediSpas.(845) 454-8025,www.NYfaceMD.com.

business directory

The Present Perfect

CRAFTS Crafts People Representing over 500 artisans, Crafts People boasts four buildings brimming with fine crafts, the largest selection in the Hudson Valley. All media represented, including sterling silver & 14K gold jewelry, blown glass, pottery, turned wood, kaleidoscopes, wind chimes, leather, clothing, stained glass, etc. Open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday 10:30am-6pm. 262 Spillway Road, West Hurley. (845) 331-3859.

DANCEWEAR First Street Dancewear First Street Dancewear in Saugerties, NY offers quality dancewear for Adults and Children. We have dancewear, knit warm-ups, ballet, jazz, tap shoes, gymnastics wear, skatewear, accessories, and gift items. We also feature a line of women’s active wear clothing suitable for Yoga and Pilates. Phone (845) 247-4517. www.firststreet dancewear.com.

DESIGN Actionpact Solutions Actionpact Solutions is your premiere, award-winning, full-service graphic, Web, and multi-media design firm located in Kingston, New York. We offer fresh, fun, and functional advertising and design solutions for businesses of all sizes. Make a pact for action and contact us today for your free consultation! Call (845) 532-5398 or email support@ actionpactsolutions.com.

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Bluebird Artworks Studio Get your ugly mug on one of our beautiful ceramic mugs. Let Bluebird design for you. We can create elegant and efficient websites, clean business cards, effective print ads or just create a great logo. Visit the studio of multimedia artist Jonathan James. Use his web & graphic services.

Buy a gift mug, a freeform crochet hat or a fine oil painting by artist Dahlia Nichols. A small studio with big ideas. 8 Tinker Street, Woodstock, behind Walkabout. (845) 679-4659. BluebirdArtworks.com or email mrwander@gmail.com.

DISTRIBUTION Chronogram Is Everywhere!

Have you ever noticed that wherever you go, Chronogram is there?

That’s because our distribution is so damn good. We can distribute your flyer, brochure, business card, or publication to over 800 establishments in Ulster, Dutchess, Columbia, Greene, Putnam, and Orange counties and now with new stops in Peekskill, Westchester County. Call us at (845) 334-8600 x107 or e-mail distribution@chronogram.com.

DIVORCE SERVICES Lois M. Brenner See Attorneys.

EDITING Manuscript Consultant See Literary.

EVOLUTION

business directory

Discovery Institute To Know. To Understand. To Be. Offering intensive training in a living school of psycho-transformism in the tradition of G.I. Gurdjieff.

(845) 255-5548. discover@bestweb.net.

FAUX FINISHES Chronogram05

1/13/05

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Faux Intentions

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Cat Quinn, professional decorative artist, setting the standard for excellence in Custom Faux Finishes for your home and business. With infinite possibilities, your walls, floors, ceilings, fireplaces and furniture can be transformed using my faux finishing techniques. A full spectrum of decorative finishes using plasters, glazes and many other mediums, help to fill your home full of your unique personality and spirit. Don’t miss the beauty and exhiliration of transforming the rooms you live and work in every day into spaces that reflect your sense of style. Portfolio showing a phone call away. (845) 532-3067.

FINANCIAL SERVICES Center for Financial Wellness, Inc.

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I don’t sell anything! I help you become financially independent – retire early, reduce your taxes, build an investment portfolio, do work that you love, get out of debt! Robin Vaccai-Yess, Certified Financial Planner™, Registered Investment Advisor, Fee-Only. Visit www.financiallywell.com to receive my free E-newsletter and to register for workshops.

(845) 255-6052. www.financiallywell.com.

FOOD SERVING PRODUCTS Cool Cover™ CoolCover™ keeps food cool, fresh and visible for hours using patentpending air flow design. Perfect for entertaining at home, indoors and outdoors. CoolCover™ can be tipped back into stable, upright position for easy self serving. Clear, durable, food safe polycarbonate protects food from insects and pets. Great for everyday use as practical tool for healthy eating. No ice. 15 7/8” L x 11 7/8” W x 5 5/8” H. Price - $34.99. www.coolcover.us 800-601-5757.

FRAMING Catskill Art & Office See Art Supplies.

Manny’s See Art Supplies.

GARDENING & GARDEN SUPPLIES Blue Mountain Gardens Ulster County’s newest garden center specializing in unusual annuals,

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proven perennials, shrubs and vines and located next to Beyond The Pail, a fine gift store offering accessories for the gardening lifestyle. 3524 Rt. 32 North, Saugerties. Open daily 9am-6pm.

(845) 246-6978.

HOME FURNISHINGS & GIFTS

Mac’s Agway in Red Hook/New Paltz Agway

HORSEBACK RIDING LESSONS

Specializing in all your lawn and garden needs. We carry topsoil, peat moss, fertilizers, organics, grass seed, shavings, straw, fencing, pet food, bird seed, bird houses, and more. Mac’s Agway, 68 Firehouse Lane, Red Hook, NY (845) 876-1559; New Paltz Agway, 145 Route 32N, New Paltz, NY (845) 255-0050.

Hours for both locations: Monday-Friday 8am5:30pm; Saturday 8am-5pm; Sunday 9am-3pm.

The Phantom Gardener At Phantom we provide everything you need to create and enjoy an organic, beautiful landscape.

Our dedicated and knowledgeable staff will help you choose from an unbeatable selection of herbaceous or woody plants, garden products and books. We offer professional design, installation, and maintenance services. Visit us! Rhinebeck, NY. 9am – 5pm daily. (845) 876-8606.www.thephantom gardener.com. See display ad.

GIFTS

White Rice 531 Warren St, Hudson, NY 12534.

(518) 697-3500. shaunwr03@aol.com.

Frog Hollow Farm English riding lessons for adults and children.

Solar-heated indoor, large outdoor, cross-country course, extensive trails. Summer camp, boarding, training, and sales. Emphasis on Dressage as a way of enhancing all horse disciplines. Holistic teaching and horse care. 572 Old Post Road, Esopus. (845) 384-6424. www.dressageatfrog hollowfarm.com.

Green Heron Farm, Inc. We offer riding instruction to children and adults beginner through advanced all year round in a safe, fun environment with qualified instructors. We also offer summer day camp for children. We are located 3 miles from the center of Woodstock. 446 John Jay Road. For more information call (845) 246-9427 or visit us at www.greenheronfarm.com.

HOUSE ORGANIZING

Sapphire

GLASSBLOWING Glassblowing.com The glassblowing.com studio offers Beginner Workshops in both Glassblowing and Beadmaking.

Lee Kind has been teaching glassblowing since 1990 and has the ability to make this hot medium safe for anyone to try. In addition to teaching, Lee creates a line of “one of a kind” lamps and lighting installations for both homes and businesses. For more information call (845) 297-7334 or www.glassblowing.com.

HAIR SALONS Trends Hair Design Trends is a cutting-edge hair design center offering New York City styles at Hudson Valley prices, specializing in modern color, cut, and chemical techniques for men and women. Waxing and nail services available. Open Tuesday through Friday, 9am to 7pm; Saturday, 10am to 3pm. Gift certificates available. 29-31 West Strand, Kingston.

(845) 340-9100.

HOME DESIGNS Eco-Arch Design Works Janus Welton, AIA, BBEI An award-winning design architect, offering over 15 years of Traditional Chinese Feng Shui expertise to her Ecological and Healthy Building Design Practice: combining Building Biology, Solar Architecture, and Feng Shui to promote “Inspiring and Sustainable” environments for the 21st Century. Unlock the potentials of your site, home, or office to foster greater harmony, prosperity, spirit, health, and ecological integrity. Services include: Architecture, Planning, Commercial Interiors, Professional Seminars and Consultations. E-mail: ecoarchitect@hvc.rr.com or see www.JanusWeltonDesignWorks.com.

(845) 247-4620.

House Organizing Do you own your stuff or does it own you?

Take back your home! Joyous hands-on support in de-cluttering given by an experienced teacher.

Contact April Lynn Sponaugle, MS. (845) 795-5189. Free Consultation.

INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS Hudson Valley Internet Local Internet access and commercial Web site hosting. Fast, reliable, easy to use, flexible pricing…Want more? How about: free software, extra e-mail, K56Flex support, personal web space, helpful customer service, and no setup charges.

(845) 255-2799.www.hvi.net.

business directory

The newly opened Sapphire is a unique gift shop like none other. Featuring handmade quality gifts of pottery, stained glass, jewelry, wooden bowls, bags, prints, cards, and home accents made by American and Hudson Valley artisans. Located in downtown Rosendale, Sapphire is open Monday, Thursday & Friday: 2-7:30pm, Saturday: 12-7:30pm, and Sunday: 12-5pm. Closed Tues. & Wed. 415 Main Street, Rosendale. (845) 658-3315. sapphireskyllc@ hvc.rr.com.

Webjogger Blazing fast broadband Internet access. Featuring symmetrical bandwidth, superior personal attention and technical support, rock-solid security and reliability, and flexible rates. Complementary services include e-mail, Web hosting, accelerated dialup, server collocation and management, and customized networking solutions.

Webjogger is a locally grown company with offices in Tivoli and Kingston. (845) 757-4000. www.webjogger.net.

LITERARY Submit to Chronogram Seeking submissions of poems, short stories, essays, and article proposals. Accepting pieces of all sorts. With SASE, send submissions to Chronogram, 314 Wall Street, 2nd floor, Kingston, NY 12401. info@chronogram.com or check out our web site:www.chronogram.com.

Ione Writing workshops and private instruction for writers. (845) 339-5776.

MAGAZINES Chronogram The only complete arts and cultural events resource for the Hudson Valley. Subscribe and get the lowdown first. Whether you live in the Hudson Valley or just visit, you’ll know what’s going on.

Send $36 for yearly subscription to: Chronogram, 314 Wall Street, 2nd floor, Kingston, NY 12401. info@chronogram.com. www.chronogram.com.

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MEDIATION & CONFLICT RESOLUTION

PAINTING Professional Painting Co.

Pathways Mediation Center A unique mediation practice for couples going through divorce, or families in conflict, with the innovative, combined services of two professionals. Josh Koplovitz has 30 years as a Matrimonial & Family Law Attorney, and Myra Schwartz has 30 years as a Guidance Counselor. This male/female team can effectively address all your legal and family issues. Use our one-hour free consultation to find out about us. (845) 331-0100.

Hire the best for residential and commercial painting.

Our skilled staff uses quality materials and combines the necessary resources to complete each job to your satisfaction. Painting improves the appearance of your residence, protects your investment, and increases its value. Call Trevor at (845) 430-1290 or (845) 679-4232.

PERFORMING ARTS Hudson River Performing Arts Center

Rodney Wells, CFP, Member AFM & NYSCDM If you’re separating, divorcing, or have issues with child support, custody, or visitation, choose mediation. On average, mediated agreements are fulfilled twice as often as litigated court decisions and cost half as much. I draw on my experience as a financial planner, psychotherapist, and pro se litigant to guide couples in a responsible process of unraveling their entanglements, preserving their assets, and creating a satisfying future. Cornwall, New Paltz, and NYC. (845) 534-7668. www.mediateddivorce.com.

MUSIC

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Burt’s Electronics Good music deserves quality sound! Avoid the malls and shop where quality and personal service are valued above all else. Bring Burt and his staff your favorite album and let them teach you how to choose the right audio equipment for your listening needs. 549 Albany Avenue, Kingston. Monday through Friday 9am-7pm; Saturday 9am-5pm; and Sunday 12pm-4pm. (845) 331-5011.

Drums of Woodstock The ultimate source for all your jammin’ needs.

Check out our diverse collection of Djembe, Dun Dun, Conga, Bougarabou Drums, Didgeridoos, Rain Sticks, Chimes, and Hand-Held Musical Instruments. 77 Tinker Street, Woodstock, New York 12498. (845) 810-0442. www.drumsof woodstock.com.

Magnetic North Studio Attention musicians - win one free day in our recording studio. To enter - email info@magnocd.com. All entries receive $50.00 discount toward studio time. Experienced recording, mixing, mastering, editing. Complete CD/DVD packages in any quantity. Magnetic North Studio - vintage analog warmth with digital precision.

(845) 247-0113 www.magnocd.com

WVKR 91.3 FM Vassar College, Poughkeepsie. A listener-supported, non-commercial, student-run, alternative music station. Programming is provided by students and community members, and includes jazz, new music, folk, hip hop, polka, new age, international, blues, metal, news, and public affairs programming. WVKR Web casts at www.wvkr.org.

(845) 437-7010.

MUSIC LESSONS Guitar and Bass Lessons Guitar lessons: all levels and ages welcome. Electric or acoustic. Pop /rock / folk. Learn to play your favorite songs. Develop strength and co ordination.

Learn music theory. Songwriters: move beyond generic chords. Lessons in your home or mine.

Minnewaska / New Paltz area. Bibi Farber (845) 626-7944. www.bibifarber.com.

NURSERIES See Landscape Products & Services.

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29 Elm St, Fishkill, NY 12524. (845) 896-1888. hudsonriverperformingarts@yahoo.com.

Powerhouse Summer Theater/ Lehman-Loeb Gallery Vassar College Box 225, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604.

(845) 437-5902. befargislanc@pop.vassar.edu.

PERSONAL ASSISTANTS Personal Assistant Office and personal assistant more than able to provide full-spectrum support. Intelligent, dependable, industrious, discreet long-term resident can handle it all. Plan a travel itinerary or a dinner party? Organize a wardrobe or a year’s worth of accumulated clutter?

Bring order to chaos? No problem. Treat yourself.

Free yourself. Your style is my objective. Contact lucabra@earthlink.net or phone (518) 945-3311.

PET SERVICES & SUPPLIES Pussyfoot Lodge B&B The Pioneer in Professional Pet Care! Full house-petplant-sitting service, proudly serving three counties for 32 years. Experienced, dependable, thorough, and reasonable house sitting for your pets’ health and happiness. Also offering a cats-only resort with individual rooms. Extensive horticulture and landscaping knowledge in addition to domestic and zoo animal experience. Better Business Bureau Metro NY/Mid-Hudson Region Member. (845) 687-0330.

PET SITTING Why have your dog spend its day in a kennel, when it can stay comfortably at home and I’ll take care if it for you. Pine Bush, Walden, Newburgh, Middletown.

(845) 406-8932.

PHOTOGRAPHY France Menk Photography & Photodesign A fine art approach to your photographic and advertising requirements. Internationally exhibited. Major communications/advertising clients. My work is 100% focused on your needs. www.photocon.com.

(845) 256-0603.

Michael Gold Artistic headshots of actors, singers, models, musicians, performing artists, writers, and unusual, outlandish, off-the-wall personalities. Complete studio facilities and lighting. Creative, warm, original, professional. Unconditionally guaranteed. www.mich aelgoldsphotos.com and click on to the “Headshots” page. The Corporate Image Studios, 1 Jacobs Lane, New Paltz. (845) 255-5255.

Andy Wainwright Creative photography of artwork, architecture, people, and products. Grant proposals require outstanding 35mm slides to be successful, and your web site can be improved with fresh and imaginative images. The impact of a stunning postcard/ announcement should never be underesrtimated.

Andy possesses cutting edge digital skills and 28 years of experience exceeding the client’s expectations. Spectacular lighting, all the tools, and an

impassioned interest in your goals. Take a look: andywainwright.com. (845) 757-5431.

Contact Kate Haas (845) 889-4034 x534 or visit www.andersonschool.org.

Michael Weisbrot Studio

Hudson Valley Sudbury School

Wedding Photography. Color and Archival, Museum-quality, B&W Photography. Customized packages. I’m an experienced professional whose work combines sensitivities of an artist with storytelling skills of a photojournalist. General commercial freelance. Studio and location. Portraits, Theatre. Custom B&W darkroom work. Exhibition Printing. Call for prices, samples, and appointment. mandm8377@usadatanet.com or (845) 338-0293.

A radically different form of education based on the belief that children are driven by a basic desire to learn and explore. We trust that children, given the freedom, will choose the most appropriate path for their education. Our democratic School Meeting expects children to take responsibility for their lives and their community. Year-round admissions. Sliding-scale tuition. www.hudsonvalley school.org. (845) 679-1002.

PLUMBING & BATH

High Meadow School

N & S Supply 205 Old Route 9, Fishkill, NY 12524.

(845) 896-6291. cloijas@nssupply.com.

PRINTING SERVICES

Pre-kindergarten through 8th grade, committed to a child-centered education that engages the whole child. Intimate, nurturing, with small class size and hands-on learning. A program rich in academic, artistic, physical, and social skills. Fully accredited.

Route 209, Stone Ridge, NY. Call Suzanne Borris, director. (845) 687-4855.

New York Press Direct At NY Press Direct we exist for one reason - to delight our customers! What does that mean to you?

Worry-free shopping for all your printing and fulfillment needs. Our solutions are leading edge in the industry. Our pricing is among the most competitive in the northeast region. Call John DeSanto or Larry Read for more information. (845) 457-2442.

PUBLISHERS Monkfish Book Publishing Company

REAL ESTATE

Cultivating independence, confidence, compassion, peace, and a lifelong love of learning. Serving children 3 years through first grade in a one-room country schoolhouse surrounded by gardens, woodlands, and streams. 8:30 am-3:30 pm, with part time options for preschoolers. Half or full day kindergarten. Affiliated with the American Montessori Society. 62 Plains Rd., New Paltz, New York 12561. (845) 256-1875. info@mariasgarden montessori.com.

Mountain Laurel Waldorf School At the Mountain Laurel Waldorf School, not only can all students do their best in academic basics, they can find and achieve a balance in rich programs of drama, speech, Spanish, Russian, painting, music, creative writing, woodwork, and more.

Waldorf Education: for the head, heart, and hands.

Nursery-8th Grade. 16 South Chestnut Street, New Paltz. Call Judy Jaeckel. (845) 255-0033.

Woodstock Day School Willow Realty Willow Realty is a small, personalized Real Estate Agency in Ulster County, New York. We have access to all the properties in the Multiple Listing Service, but high-pressure tactics are not part of our sales kit. We have extensive experience in buyer agency and new construction. We listen to you!!!

New Paltz. (845) 255-7666.

RESTAURANT SUPPLIES

Woodstock Day School, a state-chartered, independent school and member of NYSAIS, providing quality education for pre-school through high school students since 1972. Small classes and a 6:1 student-to-teacher ratio allow us to give each child the individualized consideration necessary for a positive learning experience. PO Box 1, Woodstock. (845) 246-3744. www.woodstockday school.org.

business directory

Monkfish publishes books that combine spiritual and literary merit. Monkfish books range from memoirs to sutras, from fiction to scholarly works of thought. Monkfish also publishes Provenance Editions, an imprint devoted to elegant editions of spiritual classics. Monkfish books are available at your favorite local or online bookstores, or directly from us. Rhinebeck, NY. www.monkfishpublishing.com.

(845) 876-4861.

Maria’s Garden Montessori School

STONEWORK

Cool Cover ™ See Food Serving Products in the Business Directory.

SAILBOAT SALES & INSTRUCTION

See Landscape Products & Services.

TATTOOS Pats Tats

Great Hudson Sailing Company Purchase a new Beneteau sailboat from us and receive 20 hours of free instruction. We have sales offices in Mamaroneck and W. Haverstraw, NY. Our sailing school also offers sailing lessons in private or group sessions in three locations: W. Haverstraw, Kingston, Jersey City. Phone (800) 237-1557. www.greathudsonsailing.com.

SCHOOLS

Since 1976, Pat Sinatra and her team create custom, one-of-a-kind tattoos in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. Excellent portraits, tribal, gothic, Oriental, Americana, and realism. Gray, black, and color. Appointments are advised.

Walk-ins available Tuesdays and Fridays.

More than just a mark, it’s an experience! 948 Route 28, Kingston, NY 12401. (845) 338-8282. pat_sinatra@yahoo.com.

WEB DESIGN

Anderson School Anderson School is an educational residential community, serving children and adults (ages 5-21) with autism and related developmental disabilities, in Staatsburg, New York. Education and residential programs are designed to foster continuous growth, independence and social interaction.

Students are accepted year-round. Funded by NYS Dept. of Education, OCFS and OMRDD.

Actionpact Solutions See Design.

HDS Internet See Internet Service Providers.

Karen Williams Design Your creative solution... concept to completion.

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Web design, maintenance, domain registration and hosting for $80 per year for sites under 50MG. All sites are custom made for your individual needs. Free estimates.www.karenwilliams design.com. (845) 883-9007.

WEB DEVELOPMENT Curious Minds Media Inc. Want a website that works for you? We’ve got solutions to fit any budget, and we understand the needs of small businesses. Flash, E-commerce, database applications. CMM has what it takes to get you results. Mention this ad and receive 3 months FREE hosting! www.curiousm.com. Call now toll-free, at (888) 227-1645.

WINE In Good Taste 45 Main Street, New Paltz, NY. (845) 255-0110. ingoodtaste@ verizon.net.

WRITING WORKSHOPS Wallkill Valley Writers

FARM MARKET

• Harvest Festival Every Weekend Through October • Pony Rides • Live Entertainment • Children’s Activities • Hay Rides • Fun for the Whole Family

business directory

Creative writing workshops in New Paltz led by Kate Hymes, poet and educator. Aspiring and experienced writers are welcome.

WVW provides structured time, a supportive community and a safe place for you to fulfill the dream of writing your stories, real or imagined. Many writers find the community of a workshop benefits their work and keeps them motivated. (845) 255-7090. khamherstwriters@aol.com.

Keepsake FARM MARKET

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The New York School of

Social Graces

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CHRONOGRAM

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Dinner Thursday - Tuesday nightly from 5:00 PM. Lunch Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 12 noon.

Closed Wednesday. Reservations Recommended 3 miles south of Dover Plains, NY at the junction of East Duncan Hill Road and Old Route 22.

(845) 832-9311 www.olddroversinn.com David Wilson, Proprietor

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As we move through our lives, it often seems as if we are merely going from one moment or experience to the next. Yet something deep within us longs to grasp the thread that connects these moments together. The Story is the Journey is a workshop designed to help each participant find and grasp these threads in their own life. Working individually and as a group, we will explore the meanings of a single myth or fairy tale in our own lives. On this workshop, we will be working with the Greek myth, Ariadne. We will engage in this process through mind, body, and spirit, so come ready to move, dance, and have fun!

The workshop runs from the evening of Thursday, September, 15th to noon of Sunday, September 18th, 2005. The cost is $375 for lodging, food and sessions.

The workshop will be held in a serene, nurturing setting in Willow, NY (close to Woodstock).

Registration is limited to 12 participants.

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EVENT LISTINGS FOR SEPTEMBER 2005

the forecast

Poised, R. Kenton Nelson

the forecast

COVER TO COVER

Some of us measure out our lives by New Yorker covers. We can remember in which Upper West Side apartment we saw our first full-length Edward Koren cartoon, with its shaggy, neurotic monsters. “The Art of the New Yorker: Eighty Years in the Vanguard” at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, recounts our own history (and prehistory).

The first cover of the New Yorker, published on February 21, 1925, depicts Eustace Tilley, an 18th-century dandy, examining a butterfly through a monocle. (The price was 15 cents.) The covers of the ‘20s show flappers, and often an Art Deco influence. In the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s, a storytelling style arose—for example, Arthur Getz’s drawing of a venerable brownstone being demolished, as a new glass highrise is built across the street. The New Yorker weathered the turbulent ‘60s with images of flowerpots on windowsills. It was only when Françoise Mouly became art director in 1993 that the current era of radical covers began. Mouly’s husband, Art Spiegelman—creator of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus comic book—drew the daring Hasidic Kiss, showing an African-American woman and Hasidic man in passionate embrace, soon after the Crown Heights riots.

“The Art of the New Yorker,” curated by Mouly, is on view through October 31 at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA. (413) 298-4100; www.nrm.org.

—Sparrow

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calendar THUR 1 BODY / MIND / SPIRIT The Names of Our Lord; the Sufi Qualities 7pm. Call for location. 679-7215.

EVENTS Used Book Sale

Two Gentlemen of Verona

Young People’s Concert

8pm. Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.

Boscobel Restoration, Garrison.

265-9575.

11am. JKL Trio, piano, violin, cello.

Maverick Concerts, Woodstock.

338-5254.

The Pitchmen

Elly Wininger & Carla Shapiro

8-9pm. A sordid selection of sleazy salesmen, and one renegade puppet.

Bau, Beacon. 591-2331. $5.

5-7pm. Catskill Center Erpf Gallery, Arkville. 586-2611.

4-7pm. Woodstock Library, Woodstock.

679-2213.

SAT 3

MUSIC Rev. Kenneth Walsh

ART

Call for time. Classical. Old Dutch Church, Kingston. 338-6759.

Torosaurus On View

David Darling 8pm. Cellist. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 255-1559.

Wide Open Mike 8pm. All genres. Backstage Studio Productions, Kingston. 338-8700.

Little Scotty and the Knockouts 8:30-11pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Spanky’s, Poughkeepsie. 485-2294.

Mike Quick Band 9:30pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Corner Stage, Middletown. 342-4804.

THEATER Two Gentlemen of Verona

FRI 2 ART 1st Fridays in Peekskill

West of Woodstock: A Year of Change 4-7pm. Oil paintings by Ida Marx. Emily Hoysradt Gallery, Kingston. 338-6844.

A Glimpse of Nature: Journey Into Serenity 5-7pm. Photo exhibit by Sally Delmerico.

Mezzanine Bookstore & Café, Kingston.

339-6925.

New Work By Jenny Nelson and Deirdre Leber 5-7pm. Coffey Gallery, Kingston.

339-6105.

BODY / MIND / SPIRIT The Pachakuti Mesa Peruvian Shamanism 11am-5pm. The Garden at Thunder Hill, Rensselaerville. (518) 797-3373.

EVENTS Beaux Arts BBQ

5-8pm. Art galleries open late, music.

Peekskill. (914) 734-2367.

Call for times. Costumes, country rock music and more. Woodstock Artists Association, Woodstock. 679-2940.

EVENTS Woodstock Museum Film Festival

Woodstock-New Paltz Arts and Crafts Fair

7:30-12am. Featuring clairvoyants, and films The Tibetan Book of the Dead and The Offering. Woodstock Museum, Woodstock. 246-0600.

MUSIC Marion Kimlock 11am-1pm. Gospel. Poughkeepsie Farmers’ Market, Poughkeepsie.

473-6955.

A Seventies Retrospective 8-10pm. Acoustic guitar and vocals

by Bob ‘Epiphone’ Cage. Mezzanine Bookstore & Café, Kingston. 339-6925.

Thunder Ridge 9:30pm. Country, rock. Catskill Point Restaurant & Bar, Catskill. (518) 943-3173.

Dean Scala Band 10pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Corner Stage, Middletown. 342-4804.

THE OUTDOORS New York Jewish Environmental Bike Ride Call for times. Call for location.

(212) 284-6812.

SPOKEN WORD Contemporary Music & Poetry Sampler

10am-6pm. Ulster County Fairgrounds, New Paltz. 679-8087.

Meryl Joan Lammers 7-9pm. Acoustic guitar and vocals.

Mezzanine Bookstore & Café, Kingston.

339-6925.

The James Montgomery Band 7:30-10pm. Blues. Woodstock Playhouse, Woodstock. 247-4007. $20/$25.

Three Dog Night 8pm. Belleayre Mountain, Highmount.

(800) 942-6904 ext. 406.

Windham Chamber Music Festival 8pm. Windham Performing Arts Center, Windham. (518) 734-6378.

Mark Raisch 8-11pm. Cabaret, jazz, swing, vocals, American Standard. Brickhouse, Marlboro. 236-3765.

Thunder Ridge 8-11pm. Country rock. Woodstock Artists Association, Woodstock.

679-7626.

Michael Hill’s Blues Mob 10pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Corner Stage, Middletown. 342-4804.

THE OUTDOORS Moderate Hike at Taconic BashBish Alandar Mountain Call for times. Call for meeting place.

(518) 851-9089.

Strenuous 7Mile Hike at Peekamoose

Raspberry Social

Call for times. Call for meeting place.

339-7170.

1-5pm. Raspberry foods, champagne, wine. Stone Ridge Orchard, Stone Ridge.

687-2587.

Mohonk Preserve Singles Hike – Peters Kill.

1658 Stockade National Historic District Walking Tour 2pm. Friends of Historic Kingston Museum, Kingston. 339-0720. $5/$2 children.

FILM Woodstock Museum Film Festival 2-11pm. Featuring 11 films. Woodstock Museum, Woodstock. 246-0600.

KIDS The Great All American Audience Participation Magic Show 11am. Center for Performing Arts, Rhinebeck. 876-3080. $7/$5 children.

MUSIC Baird Hersey and Prana Overtone singing choir. Omega Institute, Rhinebeck. (800) 944-1001.

Dueling Guitars 7/9. Jazz guitarists. Inquiring Mind Gallery, Saugerties. (888) 275-2352. $12/ $15 at the door.

7pm. David Rothenberg: musician and author of Why Birds Sing. Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill.

(914) 788-7166.

Motley Crue

THEATER Community Playback Theatre

Music at the Market

8pm. Improvisation based on audience members’ experiences and dreams.

Boughton Place, Highland. 691-4118. $6.

7pm. Blues. Woodstock Playhouse, Woodstock. 679-4101.

Call for times. Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs.

(518) 583-8998.

10:30am-1pm. Featuring the Big Caboose Review. Riverside Market, Catskill. (518) 943-4300.

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7pm. Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.

Boscobel Restoration, Garrison. 265-9575.

4-7pm. Yellow Bird Gallery, Newburgh.

561-7204.

John Schrader

9:30am-4:30pm. Meet at Jenny Lane, New Paltz. 255-0919.

Catskill Animal Sanctuary Goes to the Birds 1-5pm. Story hour, games, art projects, a wild bird walk. Catskill Animal Sanctuary, Saugerties. 336-8447.

SPOKEN WORD Evening Photography Lecture Series 8pm. Larry Fink: The Courage to Create.

Center for Photography, Woodstock.

679-6337.

THEATER Highlights from the Footlights – A Grand Night for Singing 8pm. Gilbert & Sullivan Musical Theater Company. Center for Performing Arts, Rhinebeck. 876-3080. $17/$15 seniors and children.

Two Gentlemen of Verona 8pm. Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. Boscobel Restoration, Garrison.

265-9575.

WORKSHOPS Introduction to Digital Photography Call for times. Center for Photography, Woodstock. 679-9957.

The Courage to Create Call for times. Center for Photography, Woodstock. 679-9957.

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SUN 4 ART Judy Sigunick Paintings & Monoprints Outdoor Sculpture Garden 4-6pm. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 255-1559.

The Art of Robin Cobbs and Harriet Phillips 4-6pm. Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, Newburgh. 569-4997.

EVENTS House of Mirth Tour 1pm/3pm. Walk in the footsteps of Wharton’s heroine Lily Bart. Staatsburgh State Historic Site, Staatsburg.

889-8851.

10am-4pm. Ulster County Fairgrounds, New Paltz. 679-8087.

Mike Quick Band

TUES 6 CLASSES Clay Shop for Children

Parenting a Second Time Around 6pm. 6-week sessions. Annex of the Family Partnership Center, Poughkeepsie. 677-8223 ext. 116.

KIDS Clay Shop

Call for times. Woodstock Artists Association, Woodstock. 679-2198.

Magic, Mime & Movement

Woodstock Reggae Fair 9-11pm. Featuring Inner Visions and others. Bearsville Theater, Woodstock.

679-3382.

FILM Woodstock Museum Film Festival 2-10pm. Featuring 10 films. Woodstock Museum, Woodstock. 246-0600.

KIDS Incredible Larry

4-5:15pm. 4 sessions. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 255-1559.

MUSIC Michael McCarthy Duo 6-9pm. Lombardi‘s Restaurant, Gardiner. 255-9779.

Open Mike 10:30pm. Snug‘s Tavern, New Paltz.

255-9800.

Carpathian Mountain Fiddle and Wooden Flute Group Call for times. With Andriy Milavsky and Halia Remez. Meets every Monday in September. $10. Shawangunk Ridge Farm, Gardiner. 256-1206.

11am. Juggling, comedy, audience interaction, and improvisation. Center for Performing Arts, Rhinebeck. 876-3080. $7/$5 children.

MUSIC Deuces Wild Tour Call for times. Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs.

(518) 583-8998.

8:30-11pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Spanky‘s, Poughkeepsie. 485-2294.

9:30pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Corner Stage, Middletown. 342-4804.

THEATER Vaudeville Alley Call for times. Fall benefit. Stageworks, Hudson. (518) 822-9667.

Call for times. 6-week sessions. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz.

255-1559.

Call for times. 6 sessions. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 255-1559.

10am-6pm. Ulster County Fairgrounds, New Paltz. 679-8087.

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Little Scotty and the Knockouts

Third Annual Woodstock Fine Art Live Auction

Woodstock-New Paltz Arts and Crafts Fair

FRI 9 ART Works By Gary Masline and Kevin Kaszubowsk 5:30-7:30pm. North Pointe Cultural Arts Center, Kinderhook. (518) 758-9234.

BODY / MIND / SPIRIT Self-Healing 7-9pm. One Light Healing Touch: Healer Training School, Rhinebeck. 876-0259.

CLASSES Swing Dance Classes Call for times. 6-session course exclusively for the gay community.

Stone Ridge Center for the Arts, Stone Ridge. 236-3939.

EVENTS 4th Annual Hudson Valley Wine Fest 6-9pm. Greig Farm, Red Hook.

(888) 687-2517.

MUSIC The Stillwell Project 5-10pm. Country, jazz, oldies, pop, rock, soul. St. Mary‘s Hall, Kingston.

338-3972.

Sean Smith Quartet

WED 7 CLASSES Swing Dance Class Basic 6:30 pm, Intermediate 7:30 pm, Advanced 8:30pm. 4 sessions.

Boughton Place, Highland. 236-3939.

8pm. Jazz. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie. 437-7404.

Wildflowers 8pm. Featuring Elly Wininger and Susan Cohen. Hickory BBQ Smokehouse, Kingston. 338-2424.

Xoch

DANCE Sunday Afternoon Tea Dance

9-11pm. Pop/rock. The Cubbyhole Coffee House, Poughkeepsie. 483-7584.

3pm. Maverick Concerts, Woodstock.

338-5254.

3-6pm. Mezzanine Bookstore & Café, Kingston. 339-6925.

The Bill Davis Band

Banshanachie & Friends

EVENTS Game Night

Griffes/Barrere V: Musique de Chambre

4-7pm. Rosendale Café, Rosendale.

658-9048.

All-Star Jazz 7-11pm. Chowhound Café, Saugerties.

246-5158.

THE OUTDOORS Mohonk Preserve Singles Hike - Ice Caves 9:30am-4:30pm, New Paltz. 255-0919.

Mohonk Preserve – The Millbrook Trail 10am-3pm. Strenuous 7-mile hike.

New Paltz. 255-0919.

THEATER Two Gentlemen of Verona 6pm. Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. Boscobel Restoration, Garrison.

265-9575.

Highlights from the Footlights – A Grand Night for Singing 8pm. Gilbert & Sullivan Musical Theater Company. Center for Performing Arts, Rhinebeck. 876-3080. $17/$15 seniors and children.

MON 5 CLASSES Carpathian Mountain Fiddle and Wooden Flute Group Call for times. With Andriy Milavsky and Halia Remez. Meets every Monday in September. $10. Shawangunk Ridge Farm, Gardiner. 256-1206.

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EVENTS Woodstock-New Paltz Arts and Crafts Fair

3-6pm. Scrabble, Chess, Backgammon.

Mezzanine Bookstore & Café, Kingston.

339-6925.

SPOKEN WORD Book Signing and Talk with Historian Marc Fried 7:30pm. Shawangunk Historical Society, Wallkill. 895-3986.

THUR 8 ART Then & Now Call for times. Photography exhibit tracing changes in Orange County.

Seligmann Homestead, Sugar Loaf.

469-9459.

Fall for Art 6-9pm. Juried art show, sale & cocktail party. Wiltwyck Golf Club, Kingston.

338-8131. $35/$30.

CLASSES Tai Chi Chuan 12 week session. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 255-1559.

The Art and Craft of Lyric Writing 7-10pm. 3-credit course on Thursdays.

Ulster County Community College, Stone Ridge. (800) 724-0833.

10pm. Bacchus Restaurant, New Paltz.

255-8636.

Murali Coryell 10pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Corner Stage, Middletown. 342-4804.

SPOKEN WORD Nina Shengold, Author of Clearcut Call for time. Golden Notebook, Woodstock. 679-8000.

Book Signing and Talk with Historian Marc Fried 5:30pm. Town of Crawford Library, Pine Bush. 744-3375.

Jimmy Santiago Baca Spoken Word Series 7pm. Reading by award-winning poet Jimmy Santiago Baca. Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA. 677-8559.

THEATER The Woman in Black Call for times. Terrifying thriller.

Shadowland Theatre, Ellenville. 647-5511.

SAT 10 ART Colony Art Co-op Reception 3-6pm. Many styles, genres and artists.

Colony Arts Center, Woodstock.

679-3448.

Ambiguous Icons

MUSIC Wide Open Mike

5-7pm. Jim Campbell. Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock.

679-9957.

8pm. All genres. Backstage Studio Productions, Kingston. 338-8700.

Photographs by Lori Nix 5-7pm. Galerie BMG, Woodstock. 679-0027.

DOCUMENTARY POET CAROLYN FORCHÉ

POET OF WITNESS She may have coined the term “documentary poetry” to describe the verses she wrote about the atrocities she witnessed in El Salvador between 1978 and 1980, but do not label Carolyn Forché a “political” poet. According to Forché, “political” in connection with United States poetry can carry derogatory weight. “I prefer to be a poet rather than be dismissed in that fashion. I don’t like ‘hyphenating’ poets to segregate them,” the self-proclaimed anti-ideologue says. Also a human rights activist, noted translator, read from her work at the Colony Café in Woodstock on September 10, part of Woodstock’s Second Saturday arts initiative.

Forché’s verses have evolved from first-person lyric narrative to fragmented lyrical fusion. Born in Detroit in 1950 and raised in its working-class suburbs, Forché was shaped by the civil-rights and antiVietnam War movements. At age 24, she won the coveted Yale Younger Poets Award for Gathering the

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editor, and director of creative writing at Skidmore College, she’s authored four poetry volumes and will

Tribes (1976), in which she skillfully incorporated the diverse voices of her own Slavic ancestors and the Pueblo Indians she lived among in the American Southwest. Next, she learned about the Salvadorian civil war when she traveled to Spain to translate the work of exiled Salvadorian poet Claribel Alegría.

After traveling to El Salvador at the behest of Alegría, Forché recounted the suffering she witnessed in her poetry bestseller, The Country Between Us (1981). Its most anthologized selection, “The Colonel,” arrives at an apocalyptic epiphany as the eponymous military dictator spills human ears on a table, cursing as he sweeps them to the ground: “Some / of the ears on the floor caught this scrap of his voice. Some of the / ears on the floor were pressed to the ground.” As prophesized by El Salvadorian Archbishop Oscar Romero two weeks before his assassination, Forché’s life henceforth has been dedicated to transmitting what those ears were listening to.

“I was going to El Salvador to learn Spanish better and to do a kind of Peace Corps experience. The purpose of my trip was not to do what I turned out to do,” Forché explains. When Romero urged her to flee the country and report what was happening there in the US, she insisted that she lacked the ability and means. Upon publication of The Country Between Us, Forché was catapulted into the national limelight. “For the next decade after that I was obsessed with preventing [US] military intervention in El Salvador,” she recalls. “I read at a different place nearly every night in nearly all 50 states.”

She began compiling poems by poets who had endured state-sponsored extremities, which resulted in her edited collection Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness (1993). “Almost all poets outside of the English-speaking world…have experienced personal extremity—depravity of the state, warfare, dictatorship,” she insists. In 1994, she won the Los Angeles Times Book Award for her own book-length poem of witness, The Angel of History, a mosaic of discordant voices and images that meditate on 20th-century moral disasters, chiefly the Holocaust and Hiroshima.

Forché’s most recent collection, Blue Hour (2003), showcases her lyrical mastery while exhibiting “a groundkeeper’s knowledge of graves,” as she writes in “On Earth,” the 46-page modified abecedarian (an alphabetically arranged form based on third-century Gnostic hymns). Here, as in the bulk of her writing, Forché captures what she calls in a singular line: “a litany of broken but remembered events.”

Carolyn Forché will read on Saturday, September 10, at 7pm at the Colony Café, 22 Rock City Road, Woodstock. Introduction and reading by Woodstock Poet Laureate Edward Sanders. (845) 679-0216; lylvisaker@aol.com.

—Pauline Uchmanowicz

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RAJA AZAR (AKA FIRST MATE MR. SKEEVY) AND CAPTAIN CLAMP PONDER THE CLAW

CRABQUISTADOR: SCAVENGER OF GOD Take a melodramatic, dark-humored sea tale, stir in a generous helping of puppets, sprinkle with a bit of nautically themed rock music, and what do you get? Jollyship the Whiz-Bang, an innovative group that produces and performs live, full-length melodic adventures about—what else?—pirates.

“Crabquistador: Scavenger of God,” the sixth of the group’s maritime musicals, is coming to Kingston

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this month.

The brainchild of Nick Jones and Raja Azar, Jollyship the Whiz-Bang was born when the two Bard students relocated to New York City and found it harder to do the musical plays they’d done together in college and draw the same crowds. A musical open-mike skit featuring a pirate puppet ended up being the spark they needed.

“People loved it and we decided to develop it,” Jones says, and they created an ongoing live, musical, pirate/sea saga featuring a band, live actors, and the puppet as Captain Clamp. “We sort of gave ourselves this goal of making it into a 10-part seesaw so the episodes stack together chronologically. Puppets were appealing because you could pack them in a suitcase and unpack them anywhere, sort of like a rock band.”

In “Crabquistador,” the tired-of-pirate-life captain looks for new avenues to explore and a way to turn his life over to God. A trip to the Americas leads to his recruitment into a conquistador pyramid scheme to convert sinners to believers for cash and prizes. The multi-media production features Power Point presentations, sermons, and the songs “Converting to Christianity” and “Missionary Style.”

“Crabquistador: Scavenger of God” will be performed at BackStage Productions, 323 Wall Street, Kingston, on September 16 at 8pm and September 17 at 4pm. The performances will be recorded by Evolving Media Network via multitrack audio/video and will be available on DVD later this year. Tickets for each performance are $8 in advance/$10 at the door. (845) 338-8700; www.thewhizbang.org.

—Felicia Hodges

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Primitive Visions: Paintings of Images From Ancient Cultures

Annual Virgo Bash: Bobby Kennedy & Friends

5-7pm. Patty Hanson. The Catskills Gallery, Saugerties. 246-5552.

Call for times. Air Studio Gallery, Kingston. 331-2662.

Regional Triennial of Photographic Works

The Midnight Ramble

5-7pm. Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock. 679-9957.

Under the Influence 5-8pm. Patrick Milbourn works inspired

by Thomas Cole’s Catskill. M Gallery, Catskill. (518) 943-2189.

Women‘s Work 6-8pm. Work created by women and the work of women. Time and Space Limited, Hudson. (518) 822-8448.

Photography by Patricia Nolan & Stevan Jennis 6-9pm. Richard Sena Gallery, Hudson.

(518) 828-1996.

September Sculpture Show 6-9pm. VARGA, Woodstock. 679-4005.

Spray Paint 2005 6-10pm. Airbrush In Modern Art. Zahra Studio Gallery, Beacon. 838-6311.

Call for times. Levon Helm Studios, Woodstock. 679-2744. $100.

Music at the Market 10:30am-1pm. Featuring Celt-Mex Trio.

Riverside Market, Catskill. (518) 943-4300.

Thunder Ridge 12pm. Country rock. Davis Park, West Shokan. 757-5676.

The Stillwell Project 5-10pm. Country, jazz, oldies, pop, rock, soul. St. Mary‘s Hall, Kingston.

338-3972.

Cellist David Darling 8pm. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 255-1559. $14 members/ $18 non-members.

Music for Peace Event 8pm. Colony Café, Woodstock.

246-8565. $5.

Bobby Kyle Band

BODY / MIND / SPIRIT Access Your Healing Potential

10pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Corner Stage, Middletown. 342-4804.

Call for times. One Light Healing Touch: Healer Training School, Rhinebeck.

876-0259.

THE OUTDOORS Mohonk Preserve Singles Hike – Lake Awosting

Clay Play Day & Yoga 10am-6pm. The Garden at Thunder Hill, Rensselaerville. (518) 797-3373.

9:30am-3:30pm. Strenuous 10-mile hike. Meet at Jenny Lane, New Paltz.

255-0919.

CLASSES Reiki III

Mohonk Preserve – Kitchen Garden Program

10am-5pm. Connie and Joyce Traditional Reiki Masters. Woodstock.

3336-4609.

1-3pm. Easy 1/2 mile hike. New Paltz.

255-0919.

All In One

1-3pm. Learn about the wild plants and their many uses. Shawangunk Ridge Farm United Pant Savers Botanical Sanctuary, Gardiner. 256-1206.

Beginning Knitting 1-3pm. Yarn Swift, Poughkeepsie.

454-7444.

Dance Classes 1-5pm. Modern dance, percussive dance, break-dancing, hip hop, lindy hop. Stone Ridge Center for the Arts, Stone Ridge. 256-9300.

Mah Jong- Hong Kong Style 2-5pm. 1/2 hour class plus hands-on play. Mezzanine Bookstore & Café, Kingston. 339-6925.

DANCE Freestyle Frolic 8:30pm. Shoe, alcohol, drug and smoke free. Tillson. 658-8319. $7/$3 teens.

EVENTS 4th Annual Hudson Valley Wine Fest 10am-5pm. Greig Farm, Red Hook.

(888) 687-2517.

Fall Orchid Sale 11am-3pm. Union Presbyterian Church Community Center, Balmville.

561-8558.

Woodstock Second Saturdays 2-10pm. Poetry readings, music, art exhibits, book readings. Call for specific times and locations, Woodstock.

679-2079.

Auction Call for times. Collection of outsider art, folk art, and primitives period furniture.

George Cole Auctioneers, Red Hook.

758-9114.

KIDS Dining with Dragonflies

SPOKEN WORD In the Arms of Words: Poems for Tsunami Relief Book Release 2pm. Readings, open mike. Woodstock Town Hall, Woodstock. 246-8565.

Poetry for Peace Event 5pm. Colony Café, Woodstock. 246-8565.

Carolyn Forche 7pm. Poetry. Colony Café, Woodstock.

246-8565. $5.

Evening Photography Lecture Series 8pm. Shelby Lee Adams. Center for Photography, Woodstock. 679-6337.

THEATER Auditions for The Skin of Our Teeth 1pm. Cocoon Theatre, Rhinebeck.

876-7481.

WORKSHOPS Judy y Jon Call for times. Presented by Woodstock Tango. Mountain View Studio, Woodstock. 246-1122.

Environmental Portraiture Call for times. Center for Photography, Woodstock. 679-9957.

The Portrait in Pastel 9am. Woodstock School of Art, Woodstock. 679-2388.

SUN 11 BODY / MIND / SPIRIT Peace Path 12-2pm. Kingston, Woodstock, Saugerties, New Paltz. 679-2821.

10am. Kenridge Farm, Cornwall.

534-5506 ext 204.

EVENTS Harvest Moon Folk Festival

MUSIC A Birthday Tribute to John Coltrane

Call for times. Featuring Terrence Martin.

Warwick Valley Winery & Orchards, Warwick. 258-4858.

7/9. All-star jazz jam session. Inquiring Mind Gallery, Saugerties.

(888) 275-2352. $12/$15 at the door.

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10:30am-12:30pm. 8 Saturday sessions, each week a different topic; resumes, portfolios, marketing, pricing, etc. Elisa Pritzker Studio & Gallery, Highland.

691-5506. $300.

Weed Walk

4th Annual Hudson Valley Wine Fest 10am-5pm. Greig Farm, Red Hook.

(888) 687-2517.

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Celebration of Peace and Hope 11am. Celtic music concert at 2pm.

Cragsmoor Stone Church, Kingston.

647-6487.

Children’s Book Festival 12-4pm. Authors and illustrators present.

Stanley Deming Park, Warwick.

986-1047.

Saugerties Jazz and Arts Festival 1-7pm. Village of Saugerties. 246-2321.

MUSIC Faculty Concert 3pm. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

437-7404.

All-Star Jazz 7-11pm. Chowhound Café, Saugerties.

246-5158.

THE OUTDOORS Mohonk Preserve Singles Hike – Gertrude’s Nose 9am-4pm. Meet at the West Trapps Trailhead, New Paltz. 255-0919.

THEATER Auditions for The Skin of Our Teeth 7pm. Cocoon Theatre, Rhinebeck.

876-7481.

WORKSHOPS Women in Her Power: Yantra Painting Workshop Call for times. The Garden at Thunder Hill, Rensselaerville. (518) 797-3373.

Alef Reiki 1-3pm. The Ancient natural healing.

Heart and Soul Holistic Center, Beacon.

440-0724.

MON 12 the forecast

CLASSES Gentle or Integrative Yoga Call for times. SUNY Ulster, Continuing & Professional Education, Stone Ridge.

339-2025.

Swing Dance Class Basic 6:30 pm, Intermediate 7:30 pm, Advanced 8:30pm. 6 sessions. Reformed Church of the Comforter, Kingston.

236-3939.

Qigong Classes Ongoing. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 255-1559. $10/$12 per class.

Carpathian Mountain Fiddle and Wooden Flute Group Call for times. With Andriy Milavsky and Halia Remez. Meets every Monday in September. $10. Shawangunk Ridge Farm, Gardiner. 256-1206.

SPOKEN WORD Movie Night at the Colony 7pm. Poems inspired by Hollywood and beyond. Colony Café, Woodstock.

679-5342.

the perfect balance

TUE 13 KIDS Children’s Theater Repertory Company Theatre Classes 4-5:30pm. Sunnyside Theatre, New Paltz.

255-4126.

MUSIC Michael McCarthy Duo 6-9pm. Jazz. Lombardi‘s Restaurant, Gardiner. 255-9779.

Open Mike 10:30pm. Snug‘s Tavern, New Paltz.

255-9800.

WORKSHOPS Woodstock Writers‘ Workshops 6:30-8:30pm. 5 sessions. Call for location. 679-8256. $75.

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oÜáåÉÄÉÅâ= `Ü~ãÄÉê=jìëáÅ=pçÅáÉíó= 2005-2006 Season 26th Year in the Hudson Valley

The Church of the Messiah in Rhinebeck September 17, 2005 Saturday @ 8pm

Les Amies

Ibert, Bach, Rameau, Glazunov, Devienne, Ravel

October 15, 2005 Saturday @ 8pm

Madison String Quartet

November 13, 2005 Sunday @ 4pm

Audubon String Quartet

Revueltas, Schickele, Brahms Haydn, Shostakovich, Smetana

Hudson Valley Baroque December 11, 200 Sunday @ 4pm Corrette, Fasch, Oswald, Taylor, Bach ANNIE GALLUP

THE BEAT GOES SONG

January 22, 2006 Sunday @ 4pm All Brahms Program February 12, 2006 Sunday @ 4pm

Deluged with artists, the music industry is leaving more and more players in the dust. As with many markets, supply and demand are grossly out of balance. If you’re not part of the mainstream music madness, it’s beneficial if your work stands out. Annie Gallup is one who stands out.

In response to this, Gallup strikes a humble pose. “A lot of people’s work stands out,” she says, her artists that should be heard. But I approach it as ‘this is what I do regardless of the business.’ I write with complete disregard to what’s going to happen.”

Regarding her disregard, Gallup has been called the musical daughter of Joni Mitchell and Lou Reed.

She’s a folk-rap storyteller, and a poetic one at that. She squeezes intricate works of fiction into each song—sharply lyrical narratives, often humorous and heavy with rhythm. A longtime fan of Doc Watson and Mississippi bluesman John Hurt, her guitar picking (on her uncommon DADEAD tuning) is elaborate and innovative, blending perfectly with her elaborate character profiles.

Growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Gallup attended the University of Michigan School of Art with a background in visual arts and dance. She’s explored many professions—massage therapy, waitressing, metalworking, illustration, sailmaking, baking—and has moved back and forth across the country. She fell into her dream in 1994 with the release of her first CD, Cause and Effect, and began touring full-time.

She received a grant in 2001 and premiered her one-woman show, “Stay Me with Flagons,” a journey

with Cynthia Phelps, viola and André Díaz, cello

Czech Nonet

at Olin Hall, Bard College Mozart, Jaroch, Rejcha

Portland String Quartet Mozart, Re

April 9, 2006 Saturday @ 8pm

Attacca String Quartet

April 29, 2006 Saturday @ 8pm

Ying Quartet

Admission: $20 Adults $5 Students Under 13 Free

Emerging Artist Series Haydn, Dvorak

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soft voice barely above a whisper. “That’s the heartbreak, the fact that the business can’t support all the

March 26, 2006 Sunday @ 4pm

American String Quartet

Ticket Books Nine Tickets for $160 (One Concert FREE)

PHONE: 845-876-2870 FAX: 845-876-1980 EMAIL: info@rhinebeckmusic.org WEB: www.rhinebeckmusic.org

through contemporary life in song, story, and foot percussion, followed by another theatrical piece in 2002, “Skinny Arms.” When asked to describe herself and her music, she uses the phrase “beat poet songwriter.” The recipient of numerous awards, Gallup has just released her sixth album, Pearl Street, its ten linked narratives making this one a concept record. Gallup elaborates: “The same character appears in all the songs. The protagonist is a woman named Kate, who is about 17 when the story starts, and the stories take place over about 10 years. It’s a coming-of-age story for Kate. It’s fictional, [all of the characters are] composites.”

Gallup will open the 2005-06 Hyde Park Free Library Living Room Concert Series this month with a solo guitar performance. She’ll also present a three-hour workshop the same day titled “Songwriting Without Rules.” “The idea is that if there are no rules; you have to make decisions,” she explains. “To learn songcraft, you have to learn to make good decisions. It’s a workshop in how to listen and think about choices, to open people’s ideas to what’s possible. To broaden their vision of what they can do with songs.”

Gallup’s seventh CD will be released this winter, a collection of duets with bass players. But for now, it’s just the captivating girl and her guitar. She leaves us with two maxims for our own artistic endeavors: “The goal is not perfection, the goal is magic. Take control so that you lose control.”

Annie Gallup will present a songwriting workshop at Hyde Park Library, 2 Main Street, Hyde Park, on Saturday, September 10, from 1 to 4 pm. A concert will follow at 8 pm. The performance is $10 and the workshop is $45 (includes admission to the concert). Reservations are required. (845) 229-7791; www.anniegallup.com.

—Sharon Nichols

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DAVID HORNUNG, DETRITUS, OIL ON CANVAS, COLLECTION OF TORY ETTLINGER

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COLLECTING COLLECTORS Sonia Sudak had an epiphany about the local art scene at the Red Onion Restaurant in Saugerties—she saw Leslie Bender’s painting Black Circus. “I thought it was wonderful,” she recalls. “I said, ‘Gee, there is some good art up here!’”

Sudak conceived of the show “Passionate About Art,” featuring works from the houses of local collectors. There was one obstacle, however. “I didn’t know one collector when I started out,” Sudak admits. “So I just had to get their names, find out, and call them. And they were all so pleased about the idea.”

She learned that collectors are rather lonely: “Their friends, the people who come to their homes, generally aren’t interested in art. They just look very superficially around, and say, ‘Big collection!’ or something like that. So collectors are really happy about having something on public view.”

At first, Happy and Jane Traum were hesitant about being involved in the show, as they didn’t see themselves as serious collectors. “However, I found a joyful selection of some of this area’s finest artists,” Sudak observes. She chose an early collage by Carol Uehara. At David Gubits’s house, Sudak was impressed by Platte Clove Evergreen Light by Mariella Bisson. What she didn’t realize was that Gubits was engaged to Bisson. “The next thing, she steps out of the kitchen and says, ‘I’m the artist!’” Sudak recounts.

“Passionate About Art” includes 10 living artists, five women and five men, though Sudak did not deliberately attempt to balance the sexes. There is one piece from each collector, plus two other works by each artist, chosen by Sudak.

Sonia Sudak entered the art world by telegram. The Ira Spanierman Gallery advertised for a position in the New York Times, in 1967. Sudak replied by telegram, and was hired. “I came in, and the manager had shopping bags full of replies! And he couldn’t face opening them,” Sudak recalls.

“He so loved the fact that I sent a telegram that he hired me.” She went on to become director of the Tibor de Nagy, Max Hutchinson, and Landmark galleries. Her art career ended in 1982, however. And since then? Well, she lived on a 38-foot trawler called the Widdicombe, with her husband, the pianist and composer Daniel Abrams, for four and half years. “Basically, in the last 20 years or so, I’ve been involved with Daniel’s career, helping him,” Sudak explains. “Now I’ve just decided to go back into the art world. So this is my initial spree.”

And quite a spree it is: the regal watercolor portraits of Richard Segalman, Jenny Nelson’s persuasive abstractions, Daniel Hornung’s riddle-landscapes—and works by many other fine local painters.

What’s next for Sudak? Forming a collectors club, where local art lovers visit each other’s homes and discuss aesthetics!

“Passionate About Art” is at the Kleinert/James Gallery at 134 Tinker Street, in Woodstock, through September 18. (845) 679-2079.

—Sparrow

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WED 14 CLASSES Graphics 6:30-9pm. 7 sessions. IES Continuing Education Program, Millbrook. 677-9643.

THUR 15 DANCE Master Hip Hop Dancers Kwikstep and Rockafella 1-3pm. Stone Ridge Center for the Arts, Stone Ridge. 256-9300.

EVENTS Hudson Valley Food Bank Fundraiser 6pm. Dinner, wine, art, music. Yellow Bird Gallery, Newburgh. 534-5344. $75.

KIDS Martial Arts Call for times. 4 sessions. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 255-1559.

MUSIC Wide Open Mike 8pm. All genres. Backstage Studio Productions, Kingston. 338-8700.

Mike Quick Band 9:30pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Corner Stage, Middletown. 342-4804.

WORKSHOPS Deep Clay Dreamfigures Workshop 10 weeks. Call for location and time.

255-8039.

Soul Mission and Vision Call for times. Discover your life purpose with author Alan Seale. High Falls.

(866) 353-4993.

Call for times. A Michael Bennett presentation of the long-running Broadway musical. Center for Performing Arts, Rhinebeck. 876-3080.

8pm. CD release party and concert.

Shakti Yoga, Woodstock. 679-0706.

Patrick Fitzsimmons 8-11pm. Alternative, folk, pop. Maia Restaurant and Lounge, Poughkeepsie.

486-5004.

Joey Eppard 10pm. Joyous Lake, Woodstock.

679-0367. $12.

Danny Draher Band 10pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Corner Stage, Middletown. 342-4804.

SPOKEN WORD Nina Shengold, Author of Clearcut Call for time. Oblong Books and Music, Rhinebeck. 876-0500.

New Perspectives on Climate Change 8pm. Sunbridge College, Chestnut Ridge.

425-0055 ext. 24. $15/$10.

THEATER Crabquistador: Scavenger of God 8pm. Performed by Jollyship The WhizBang. Backstage Studio Productions, Kingston. 338-8700. $8/$10 at the door.

The Laramie Project 8pm. Play chronicling the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard. Marist College, Poughkeepsie. 575-3133. $5.

WORKSHOPS Peace of Mind Retreat Call for times. Peace Village Learning and Retreat Center, Haines Falls.

(518) 589-5000.

Spiritual Wellness Call for times. Peace Village Learning and Retreat Center, Haines Falls.

(518) 589-5000.

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THEATER A Chorus Line

Singing Bowls and One

SAT 17 ART Visual Arts Studio Course

FRI 16 ART Open Studio and Celebration 5pm. Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, Woodstock.

679-8540.

CLASSES Beginner Pilates Mat Workout Call for times. SUNY Ulster, Continuing & Professional Education, Stone Ridge.

339-2025.

EVENTS 9/11 Celebration of Peace and Hope Call for times. Cragsmoor’s Stone Church, Pine Bush. 647-6487.

Crafts Fair 10am-5pm. Lyndhurst Estate, Tarrytown.

(914) 631-4481.

Pet Adopt-A-Thon 9am-4pm. Healthy, socialized cats and dogs available for adoption. 501 Frank Sottile Blvd., Kingston. 679-0227.

FILM Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus 7:30pm. Time and Space Limited, Hudson. (518) 822-8448. $4/$6.

MUSIC Teri Rogers CD Release Party 8/9:30. Colony Café, Woodstock.

679-5342.

Walker Family Band

CHRONOGRAM

Call for times. Six Saturday sessions.

Sunbridge College, Chestnut Ridge.

425-0055 ext. 24.

Benefit Art Show and Sale Call for times. For the H.V.R.H.S. Art Garage. Morgan Lehman Gallery, Lakeville, CT. (860) 435-0898.

BODY / MIND / SPIRIT Tapping Into The Spirit World Call for times. Spirit awareness and selfhealing. The Barn, Gardiner.

256-1294. $55.

CLASSES Compost Tea Time 10am-12pm. IES Continuing Education Program, Millbrook. 677-9643.

Beginning Knitting 1-3pm. Yarn Swift, Poughkeepsie.

454-7444.

Latin Dance Night 8-11pm. Samba, meringue, salsa.

Mezzanine Bookstore & Café, Kingston.

339-6925. $10.

Used Book Sale 10am-3pm. Woodstock Library, Woodstock. 679-2213.

David Kraai

11am. Kingston Heritage Area Visitor Center, Kingston. 339-0720. $5/$2 children.

8pm. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

437-7404.

Chronogram Personals your ticket to ride

Call for times. Celebrating Edna St. Vincent Millay. Home of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Austerlitz. (914) 232-6583.

Rondout National Historic District Walking Tour

Faculty and Student Jazz Ensembles

get seriously into someone

EVENTS First Annual Steepletop Festival

11am-1pm. Contra dance. Poughkeepsie Farmers‘ Market, Poughkeepsie. 473-6955.

5-7pm. Acoustic, country, folk, original, solo, traditional. Keegan Ales Brewery, Kingston. 331-BREW.

Get SERIOUS

Imagine Peace Festival 4-11pm. Concert, food, events.

The World Peace Sanctuary, Amenia.

(800) PEACELINE.

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FIERCE INDEPENDENCE WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL

Even as the summer winds to a close, the 2005 Woodstock Film Festival is shifting into high

Pulp Fiction, and Kill Bill out of the realm of fantasy and blurs the lines between fiction and

gear. The five-day event (September 28-October 2) that has quickly become one of America’s

documentary as the cast and crew (including producer Buscemi and director Greaves)

most exciting small film festivals is set to bring together filmmakers and filmlovers at locations

themselves become characters in the very film they are making.

around the region. The films cover the entire range of moviemaking, from shorts, short-shorts

It’s not the kind of film that you could likely get made by a mainstream studio, but giving

and animation, to documentaries and features, shot on film and video. The schedule provides

exposure to that kind of original, idiosyncratic vision can be pivotal to finding it the support it

a feast for lovers of independent film—in fact, the WFF’s tag line is “Fiercely Independent,”

needs to get wider distribution. And getting daring, challenging, interesting films made and

and they mean it. Founded and led by Meira Blaustein and her husband, Laurent Rejto—

seen is what the Woodstock Film Festival is all about.

themselves independent filmmakers—the WFF has a flavor all its own.

“What I notice about the program this year is the filmmakers’ involvement with the world— across the board, from documentaries to narratives—their interest in facing challenges and

Barbarian Invasions, and each year holds surprises and unexpected pleasures.

changing things,” Blaustein says. “I think it is a reflection of our times that filmmakers use their

In the feature-length documentary category, the WFF has presented films that went on

art to react to what is out there and to make a change—it emerges as a ‘theme’ because that

to achieve considerable prominence, including Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst, The

is what is happening out there. As an organization, the Woodstock Film Festival is interested in

Agronomist, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,

celebrating voices that are speaking out, giving them encouragement, technical and logistical

Spellbound, and many of the films that paved the way for such commercial successes as

support, and an exhibition platform.”

Fahrenheit 911 and Super Size Me.

Among the innovations for this year are the inclusion of a new venue—the Rosendale

One of this year’s most intriguing entries in the documentary category is Our Brand Is

Theater—a big, single-screen, vintage, art deco theater that will provide audiences with a

Crisis from director Richard Boynton, about the surprising role played by American election

special screening experience and enhance the festival’s connection to the enthusiastic and

consultants (including the Bill Clinton campaign’s James Carville) in the Bolivian presidential

sophisticated film community in southern Ulster county.

bid of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. It explores this critical aspect of how the world works in

Also new for 2006 is the Industry Trailblazer Award, given to someone who has pioneered new ways of making film. This year’s recipient is John Sloss, an entertainment lawyer, film

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In past years, the festival has hosted early showings of such nationally acclaimed narrative features as The Woodsman, The Machinist, Pieces of April, Casa De Los Babys, and The

the early 21st century when a new “invisible hand”—that of carefully researched, tested, and applied marketing—can influence the way people behave and even the way they think.

producer, and executive producer who has been instrumental in the creation and/or distribution

The short film schedule always features and array of tiny gems, including everything from

of films, ranging from Napoleon Dynamite and Pieces of April to The Fog of War and Before

documentaries, to music videos and narrative films, to local student films and experimental

Sunset. He is a partner in the media company International Digital Enterprises (InDigEnt),

work from edge directors, and animated films by Academy Award nominees.

which focuses on involving established actors and filmmakers in the production of digital features.

Another highlight is the industry panels/workshops, discussing issues of interest to those who make and those who love movies, and which in past years have included panelists like

Films with local connections feature prominently in the 2005 program, including quite a few that were shot here. Director Tim McCann’s Runaway features local actor Melissa Leo as

Daniel Day-Lewis and James Schamus. The information is firsthand, from those in a position to know, and the intimate venues invite the audience to join right in.

well as Hudson Valley/Catskills locations. Duncan Tucker’s Transamerica (shot locally and

Then there are the parties. A film festival without parties—opportunities to schmooze, to

in Arizona) was executive produced by William H. Macy, and stars his wife, Felicity Huffman

network, to “work the room,” or just to talk movies with other filmlovers—would hardly be worth

(of television’s “Desperate Housewives”).

attending and the WFF takes advantage of the abundance of fine restaurants and clubs in

Christopher Romero is bringing Patch, a short dramatic film he directed with Debbie Harry and Melissa Leo. The short from director Suzi Voonessi, No Shoulder (which also stars Leo) was written by local resident and Chronogram book editor Nina Shengold.

the region to host a variety of interesting (and delicious) after-screening events.

An important component since the very beginning has been the music, an aspect inspired by the late Academy Award-winning composer Elmer Berenstein, who was an avid

Woodstock Film Commission cocommissioner (and

festival supporter. The festival gives a special award for

professional Location Manager) Bill Stitt line-produced

excellence in scoring film in his name. Musical guests are

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take 21/2 (executive produced by Steve

always part of the five-day event, and past performers

Buscemi and Steve Soderbergh). The film, which first showed at

have included national names and regional favorites.

the 2005 Sundance Film Festival to wide acclaim, is one of the

This year as a special treat that brings film and music

most eagerly anticipated of this year’s offerings.

together, the festival will be showing a newly restored and

Made by legendary documentary director William

remastered version of director Saul Swimmer’s 1972 The

Greaves, it moves from original footage he shot in 1969 (as

Concert For Bangladesh, with George Harrison and a

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take 1) to the present, with a re-

roster of world-class musicians, including Bob Dylan, Eric

creation of the same scene, with the same actors and crew,

Clapton, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar, and many more.

35 years later.

If you love film, the WFF is the place for you to be

It evolves along three different lines—the narrative of

at the end of September. Even if you only like film, but

the original scene and its extension in the 1969 version; a

would love to have an excuse to explore some of the

“documentary” line that reflects the cast and crew dynamics

most interesting parts of the Mid-Hudson region, from

of the process of shooting the scene in the past and present;

Woodstock to Rhinebeck and Hunter to Rosendale, see

and a third that follows the re-creation of the scene in present,

some fascinating films and meet some interesting people

as the history of the scene (represented by the first line)—and

along the way—then set aside the weekend and expose

the process of shooting the old and new scenes (as related in

yourself to the fiercely independent (and exhilarating)

the second line) impinge on and alter this third line—the scene

spirit of the Woodstock Film Festival.

being shot in the present—as it is unfolding.

This is the kind of truly experimental storytelling that is at the

through the festival’s website (www.woodstockfilmfestiva

cutting edge of the art of motion pictures, that brings the self-

l.com), where you can also find a schedule of the shows,

reflective meditations on filmmaking in pictures like Truffaut’s

information on individual tickets, and discount passes for

Day For Night and Fellini’s 81/2 into the 21st century. It takes the various time-warping perspectives of films like Memento,

160

Tickets for festival screenings and events are available

TWO SCENES FROM SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM TAKE

21/2

all festival events. (845)679-4265.

—Ned Depew

FILM FEST PREVIEW CATHERIN ZAMBRI

&

BRIAN GRANT STAR IN

212, DIRECTED BY

INSTRUMENTAL, A DOCUMENTARY DIRECTED BY GABRIEL SHALOM

JAMIE BROWN STARS

LIFE IN

IN AUTOMATIC,

TRANSITION,

DIRECTED BY

DIRECTED BY

JONATHAN WELLS

JOHN DILWORTH

SELMA BLAIR STARS

SISSY SPACEK AND

IN THE BIG EMPTY,

AIDAN QUINN STAR

DIRECTED BY J. LISA

IN NINE LIVES,

CLARK AND NEWTON

DIRECTED BY

THOMAS SIGEL

RODRIGO GARCIA

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ANTHONY NG

COLD WAR, AN

JAMES CARVILLE IN

ANIMATED FILM BY

RACHEL BOYNTON’S

BRIAN GARRIGAN

DOCUMENTARY OUR BRAND IS CRISIS

&

PADDY CONSIDINE

ROBIN TUNNEY

STARS IN DEAD

AARON STANFORD

MAN’S SHOES,

STAR IN RUNAWAY,

DIRECTED BY SHANE

DIRECTED BY

MEADOWS

TIM MCCANN

GOPHER BROKE,

FELICITY HUFFMAN

2004 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE,

KEVIN ZEGERS STAR

DIRECTED BY

DIRECTED BY

JEFF FOWLER

DUNCAN TUCKER

A

&

IN TRANSAMERICA,

161

RVGA’s Annual Benefit Dinner & Barn Dance 5pm. Kelder’s Barn, Kerhonkson. Deb bie@stoneridgeorchard.com. $50/$40 members/$25 students.

Harvest Moon Twilight Wine Tasting 5:30-7:30pm. Jazz, folk and classical music by the Bernstein Brothers. Whitecliff Vineyard & Winery, Gardiner. 255-2494. $5.

Wine Tasting 7:30-9:30pm. Hosted by Cascade Winery.

Congregation Beth David, Amenia.

373-8264. $5.

Hispanic Heritage Family Festival 11am-1pm. Part of a month-long Dutchess Community College celebration of Hispanic Culture. Taino Dutchess Theater, Poughkeepsie. 431-8039.

STORM KING

Pet Adopt-A-Thon 9am-4pm. Healthy, socialized cats and dogs available for adoption. 501 Frank Sottile Blvd., Kingston. 679-0227.

FILM Murderball 7:30pm. Story about quadriplegic rugby player. Time and Space Limited, Hudson.

(518) 822-8448.

KIDS Plant Dyeing for Parents and Children Ages 5-10

Separated from cities and museums, how does art look? Find out at Storm King, a 500-acre sculpture park near Mountainville, New York. Over 100 sculptures inhabit the grounds, including Andy Goldsworthy’s Storm King Wall, a 2,278-foot-long fieldstone wall.

Celebrating its 45th anniversary, Storm King presents “Richard Bellamy and Mark di Suvero”: over 80 photographs of di Suvero’s sculptures, and more than 20 of his works. Di Suvero (whose Mozart's Birthday is pictured above) builds structures, largely from

9am-12pm. Sunbridge College, Chestnut Ridge. 425-0055 ext. 24. $55 adults/ $25 children.

industrial I-beams, that show an educated spontaneity.

6th Annual Hudson Valley River Ramble

534-3115; www.stormking.org.

Visitors are welcome to walk, but a tram is available. (845) —Sparrow

10am. Meet the animals that live along the river. Kenridge Farm, Cornwall.

534-5506 ext 204.

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MUSIC Outskirts 8/9:30. Colony Café, Woodstock.

679-5342. $15.

Music at the Market 10:30am-1pm. Featuring Arizona.

Riverside Market, Catskill. (518) 943-4300.

Faculty Concert 8pm. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

437-7404.

La Bella Strings Concert Series 8pm. Featuring Sharon Isbin. McKenna Theatre, New Paltz. 255-1559. $23 members / $28 non-members.

Poughkeepsie Farm Project Concert Fundraiser 8pm. Featuring Betty and the Baby Boomers. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

473-1415. $10/$3 students/under 12 free.

The Monet of Classical Guitar

Moderate Hike in Black Rock Forest 9:30am. Call for meeting place. 246-2069.

Better Late than Never 2pm. Autumn flowers around the Farm.

Hawthorne Valley Farm, Ghent.

(518) 672-7500 ext. 1.

SPOKEN WORD Book Signing and Talk with Historian Marc Fried 10am. 1841 Courthouse, Goshen.

291-2388.

Lecture with Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison 3-5pm. Presented by The Berkshire Photography Group and the Photography Program at Simon’s Rock College of Bard.

McConnell Theater, Great Barrington, MA. (413) 298-3147.

THEATER Crabquistador: Scavenger of God

8pm. McKenna Theater, New Paltz.

255-1559.

4pm. Performed by Jollyship The WhizBang. Backstage Studio Productions, Kingston. 338-8700. $8/$10 at the door.

Woodstock Chamber Orchestra

The Laramie Project

8pm. Holy Cross Church, Kingston.

246-7045. $15/$7.50 students.

Thunder Ridge 8pm. Country rock. Creekside Restaurant, Catskill. (518) 943-6522.

8pm. Play chronicling the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard. Marist College, Poughkeepsie. 575-3133. $5.

DANCE Swing Dance Jam 6:30-9pm. White Eagle Hall, Kingston.

339-3032. $5.

EVENTS Readings in Contemporary Literature 2pm. „Two Accidents: the Uses of Chance in Art“ lecture by author Lewis Hyde. Reservations suggested. Dia: Beacon, Beacon. 400-0100 ext. 44.

First Annual Steepletop Festival Call for times. Celebrating Edna St. Vincent Millay. Home of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Austerlitz. (914) 232-6583.

A Taste of New Paltz Festival 11am. Ulster County Fairgrounds, New Paltz. 255-0243. $3 + cost of food.

Celtic Day in the Park 11am-5pm. Music, demonstrations, contests, activities. Staatsburgh State Historic Site, Staatsburg. 889-8851. $5/$4 seniors and students/$1 children.

Imagine Peace Festival

WORKSHOPS Deep Clay Children‘s and Teens‘ Workshop

11am-7pm. Concert, food, events.

The World Peace Sanctuary, Amenia.

(800) PEACELINE.

10pm. Joyous Lake, Woodstock.

679-0367. $12.

10 weeks. Call for location and time.

255-8039.

Pet Adopt-A-Thon

Chris Vitarello & Chris O‘Leary

Encaustics and Photography

Joey Eppard

9am-4pm. Healthy, socialized cats and dogs available for adoption. 501 Frank Sottile Blvd., Kingston. 679-0227.

10pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Corner Stage, Middletown. 342-4804.

Call for times. Center for Photography, Woodstock. 679-9957.

Music for Meditation

Fall Nature Photography

7:30pm. Featuring jazz/new-age saxophonist/flutist Premik Russell Tubbs.

Woodstock Community Center. 797-1218.

9am-5pm. Mohonk Preserve, New Paltz.

255-0919. $75/$65 members.

Scarecrow Making

THE OUTDOORS Moderately Strenuous 9-Mile Hike at Big Loop

10am-4pm. Pine Hill Farmers and Artisians Market, Pine Hill. 254-5469.

MUSIC Woodstock Chamber Orchestra

Reclaim Your Spirit

Call for times. Call for meeting place.

532-9303.

2-4pm. With Life Coach Denise Lewis.

Annette’s Heart & Soul Holistic Center, Beacon. 227-3190. $30/$25.

3pm. Bearsville Theater, Bearsville.

246-7045. $15/$7.50 students.

Easy 6.6-Mile Hike in Cold Spring 9am. Call for meeting place. 876-4534.

Mohonk Preserve Singles Hike – Millbrook Ridge 9am-4pm. Strenuous 10-mile hike.

Mohonk Preserve, New Paltz. 255-0919.

162

3-5:30pm. Leonard Stokes and Laura Von Rosk. Kiesendahl + Calhoun Gallery, Beacon. 838-1177.

SUN 18 ART The Mind‘s Eye

FILM Murderball 5pm. Story about quadriplegic rugby player. Time and Space Limited, Hudson.

(518) 822-8448.

All-Star Jazz 7-11pm. Chowhound Café, Saugerties.

246-5158.

THE OUTDOORS Fly Fishing in the Catskills Call for times. Frost Valley YMCA. 985-2254.

Stephanie Geisel

2004: A PENSIVE BOY & HIS CHICKEN

the forecast

A PORTRAIT OF FAMILY FARM FESTIVAL

FAMILY FARM FESTIVAL What exactly do local farmers actually do, and how does it affect area communities? Find out with a visit to the Family Farm Festival, where you can see, smell, and taste for yourself.

Billed as a celebration of sustainable agriculture, grass-fed meats, and state family farms, the festival aims to provide a way for area residents and area farmers to connect through educational workshops, guest speakers, and a farmers’ market featuring locally produced artisanal cheeses, breads, and fruits.

“Keeping farms in our community has a wide reach of benefit to our society, it’s not just about preserving viewscapes,” says co-organizer Jen Prosser. “Many people might eat organic, but they don’t know that part of the energy they’re using to run their air conditioners is powered by our local nuclear power plant, which uses Hudson River water for cooling, which affects the local fish populations, not to mention water quality, which affects our health. One of the goals for the festival is to share that interconnectedness.”

Food is one way the connection is strengthened. The festival’s Celebrity Chef Competition features Hudson Valley chefs Ric Orlando, Mark Slutzky, and Culinary Institute of America challengers, who will use local, grass-fed meats to create dishes that will be sampled and judged by festival-goers. There will also be plenty of ways to keep your mind busy between bites, including a Real Milk Roundtable (where the benefits of purchasing milk locally, raw milk and raw-milk cheeses, participation in “cow shares,” and the joys of pasturing cows—for both humans and cows—will be discussed). Sustainable energy demonstrations will feature solar electricity and biodiesel displays. Kids can enjoy draft horse-hayrides, face painting, storytelling, and beekeeping demonstrations. Bring a cooler to keep all the goodies you buy at the festival cool on the way home.

The Family Farm Festival will be held on Sunday, September 11, at Camp Epworth in High Falls. $5 ages 12 and up, $2 to judge the Celebrity Chef Competition. (845) 657-6059; www.sunstoneherbs.com/ festival.

—Felicia Hodges

163

Mohonk Preserve Singles Hike – Mine Hole 8:30am-3pm. Strenuous 10-mile hike.

Meet at Mohonk Preserve Visitor Center, New Paltz. 255-0919.

THEATER The Laramie Project 2pm. Play chronicling the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard. Marist College, Poughkeepsie. 575-3133. $5.

WORKSHOPS Fall Nature Photography 9am-5pm. Mohonk Preserve, New Paltz.

255-0919. $75/$65 members.

Scarecrow Making 10am-4pm. Pine Hill Farmers and Artisans Market, Pine Hill. 254-5469.

CRAFT FAIR

Enhanced Romance with Essential Oils 2-4pm. Mirabai, Woodstock. 679-2100. $15/$20.

This Labor Day Weekend, the 24th annual Woodstock-New Paltz Arts & Crafts Fair comes to the Ulster County Fairgrounds in New

MON 19 ART Robert Selkowitz 7pm. On his book, Painter’s Path.

Woodstock Artists Association, Woodstock. 657-6982.

BODY / MIND / SPIRIT New Leaf Program Call for times. 6-week nutrition and exercise program. Women‘s View.

871-3600. $300.

will gather to display and sell their wares. Showing their work for the first time at the fair will be master glassblower-sculptor Stephen Fellerman, whose pieces also appear in the permanent collections of the White House and the Chrysler Museum, and handbag-designer Susy S. Chen.

Another new feature attraction will be a fiber arts exhibit with knitting and quilting materials. This event is toddler-friendly; as in years previous, there will be an adult-supervised children’s area.

The Woodstock-New Paltz Arts & Crafts Fair runs 10am-

CLASSES Meadow Style Gardens

6pm, Saturday, September 3, and Sunday, September 4, and

7-9pm. IES Continuing Education Program, Millbrook. 677-9643.

10am-4pm, Monday, September 5, rain or shine. $8 for adults,

Learn to Meditate

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Paltz. Doll-makers, herbalists, woodcarvers, and other artisans

8pm. Free class introducing the philosophy and practice of meditation. Woodstock Town Hall, Woodstock. 797-1218.

Carpathian Mountain Fiddle and Wooden Flute Group Call for times. With Andriy Milavsky and Halia Remez. Meets every Monday in September. $10. Shawangunk Ridge Farm, Gardiner. 256-1206.

SPOKEN WORD Open Mike Night 7pm. Featuring Tom Ross and Dennis Wayne Bressack. Colony Café, Woodstock.

679-5342. $3.

$7 for seniors, $4.50 for children ages 4-12. (845) 679-8087; www.quailhollow.com.

—Sam Baden Laura von Rosk 4pm. Mount Saint Mary College, Newburgh. 569-3221.

Eurhythmy and the Changing Soul 7:30-8:45pm. Six Saturday sessions.

Sunbridge College, Chestnut Ridge.

425-0055 ext. 24.

WORKSHOPS The Heart of a Hero Call for times. An experimental retreat for men. Peace Village Learning and Retreat Center, Haines Falls. (518) 589-5000.

TUE 20 CLASSES Ecological Landscape Design: Successful Design with Native Plants 6:30-8:30pm. 3 sessions. IES Continuing Education Program, Millbrook. 677-9643.

Deepening Our Spiritual Practice 7:15-8:30pm. Tuesday night lecture series with Vedanta master Shubhra through October 18. $20. 876-2528.

EVENTS Foods of Latin America Cooking/ Tasting Demonstrations 12:30-2pm. Part of a month-long Dutchess Community College celebration of Hispanic Culture. Washington Square Quad, Poughkeepsie. 431-8039.

KIDS Drawing & Painting

WED 21 FILM Peace One Day 7pm. A man attempts a world-wide cease-fire. Time and Space Limited, Hudson. (518) 822-8448.

“Motorcycle Diaries” Movie and Discussion 3-5pm. Part of a month-long Dutchess Community College celebration of Hispanic Culture. Bowne Hall, rm. 122, Poughkeepsie.431-8039.

MUSIC Wet Paint 10pm. Blues, experimental, funk, original, world. Bacchus Restaurant, New Paltz.

255-8636.

Call for times. 4 sessions. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 255-1559.

THEATER Jesus Hopped The A Train

MUSIC Michael McCarthy Duo

7:30pm. Stageworks Hudson, Hudson.

(518) 822-9667.

6-9pm. Jazz. Lombardi‘s Restaurant, Gardiner. 255-9779.

Open Mike 10:30pm. Snug‘s Tavern, New Paltz.

255-9800.

SPOKEN WORD Sexuality after Cancer Treatment Call for times. Montgomery Street Annex, Rhinebeck. 871-4380.

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THUR 22 CLASSES Landscape Design l: Site Analysis 6:30-9pm. 6 sessions. IES Continuing Education Program, Millbrook. 677-9643.

Goat Milk and Herbal Soap Making 1-4pm. Meet and milk the goats that help

make Shawangunk Ridge Farm soap while learning about soap making outdoors by an open fire. $30. Shawangunk Ridge Farm, Gardiner. 256-1206.

MUSIC Wide Open Mike 8pm. All genres. Backstage Studio Productions, Kingston. 338-8700.

Mike Quick Band 9:30pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Corner Stage, Middletown. 342-4804.

SPOKEN WORD Ancient Secrets for Manifesting Your Dreams 7pm. With Ayurvedic pulse master Pankaj Naram. Days Inn, Liberty. 434-1636.

THEATER Jesus Hopped The A Train 7:30pm. Stageworks Hudson, Hudson.

(518) 822-9667.

FRI 23 ART Shanar: Dedication Ritual of a Buryat Shaman in Siberia 7pm. Northern Westchester Center for the Arts, Mount Kisco. (914) 241-6922.

BODY / MIND / SPIRIT The Sacred Drum Sound Healing Weekend Call for times. The Garden at Thunder Hill, Rensselaerville. (518) 797-3373.

CLASSES Healer Training School Call for times. 18 sessions over 6 months.

One Light Healing Touch: Healer Training School, Rhinebeck. 876-0259.

DANCE Swing Dance to Peter Davis and Friends 8:30pm. Lesson at 7:30. Poughkeepsie Tennis Club, Poughkeepsie.

454-2571. $10.

GUITARIST SHARON ISBIN

HIGH PRIESTESS Playing classical guitar from the age of nine, under the tutelage of such luminaries as Andres Segovia, World, won a Grammy, the first classical guitar recording to be so awarded in three decades, and she founded the guitar department at Juiliard (which she continues to direct). As if that weren’t enough, she also directs the Aspen Music Festival.

“What first inspired me about the guitar was folk music,” Isbin told NPR correspondent Robert

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Sharon Isbin is a musician to be discussed in the superlative. Her 1999 solo outing, Dreams of a

Siegel in a 2002 interview. Folk idioms—be they Chinese, Appalachian, or Spanish—have always informed Isbin’s interpretations of existing pieces. Her 1997 CD, Journey to the Amazon, was a jazzfusion exploration of traditional Brazilian music.

Isbin has been professionally performing as a soloist with an orchestra, with other classical guitarists, and simply as a soloist since she was a teenager in the 1970s. Her solo rendition of the “Concerto de Aranjuez” so intrigued its composer, Joaquin Rodrigo, that he tracked her down, beginning the first of many professional and personal relationships Isbin has had with composers including John Corigliano and Joan Tower. These friendships have proven instrumental in her efforts to commission new pieces featuring the classical guitar in an orchestral setting.

If her most recently released solo CD,is any indication, Isbin’s upcoming solo recital at SUNY New Paltz’s McKenna Theater, presented by Unison Arts Center, will consist of pieces specially composed for her guitar and a number of reappraised traditionals and standards, including “Black Is the Color of My True Lover’s Hair” and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” As a musician who takes works meant for ensembles and makes them sound full playing a single instrument, Isbin possesses a talent is entirely unique, and that has earned her the moniker "high priestess of classical guitar."

Sharon Isbin will perform at SUNY New Paltz’s McKenna Theater on Saturday, September 17, at 8pm. Tickets are $28. (845) 255-1559; www.unisonarts.org, for tickets.

—Sam Baden

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PROJECT PEEKSKILL Peekskill will become a living museum this month, as the interactive exhibition, the Peekskill Project, literally takes art to the streets.

On the program are works by 60 different artists, including Dean Freidman’s Wheels, a parade of bicycles customized by local school kids, and an exhibit by Pia Lindman that centers around Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum (who once went to military prep school in Peekskill) and the Yellow Brick Roads of the city.

The Peekskill Art Project will begin September 24 & 25 and will be open each weekend through October 15 & 16 from 12-6pm.

Admission to the art sites is free. (914) 772-3974.

—Felicia Hodges

HARUTAKA MATSUMOTO, JAPANESE DANCE, INSTALLED AT PARAMOUNT CENTER FOR THE ARTS

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Culinary Institute of America Chef Demo Call for times. Stone Ridge Orchard, Stone Ridge. 687-2587.

American Heritage Festival 10am-5pm. Native American dancers, walks, and more. Museum of the Hudson Highlands, Cornwall. 534-5506 ext. 204. $5.

Hudson Valley Garlic Festival 10am-6pm. Cantine Field, Saugerties.

246-3090.

FILM Murderball

DREAMING DEPP Arizona Dream (1993), is the first and most likely last film to be made in the US by Yugoslavian auteur Emir Kusturica (Underground, Time of the Gypsies). The essentially plotless film follows the fortunes of Axel Blackmar (Johnny Depp, above), a young man obsessed with understanding the dreams of fish.

His uncle, Leo Sweetie (Jerry Lewis), wants him to take over his

7:30pm. Story about quadriplegic rugby player. Time and Space Limited, Hudson.

(518) 822-8448.

KIDS Saturday Children’s Workshop 10am-1pm. On the Hudson River‘s maritime history. Hudson River Maritime Museum, Kingston. 338-0071 ext. 13. $13.

MUSIC The Midnight Ramble Call for times. Levon Helm Studios, Woodstock. 679-2744. $100.

Music at the Market

Cadillac dealership in Tuscon. A wealthy widow (Faye Dunaway)

10:30am-1pm. Featuring Doug Marcus.

Riverside Market, Catskill. (518) 943-4300.

and Depp have a torrid affair and build an airplane. Surreality

John Schrader Band

abounds: Fish swim across the screen and Vincent Gallo does

1pm. Acoustic, blues, original, pop, rock.

West Strand Park, Kingston. 331-1682.

a dramatic reenactment of the cropdusting scene from North

by Nothwest. Lili Taylor (also above), who plays Dunaway’s

Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra and Chorale

on the accordion for her pet turtles. Directorial self-indulgence or

7:30pm. Choral, classical, solo, symphonic. Newburgh Free Academy Auditorium, Newburgh. 562-1800.

underrated masterpiece? Either way, Kusturica’s elegiac scenes

In-The-Round

of the desert Southwest fill the screen with liquid magic.

8pm. Featuring OpenBook, Terence Martin, Ina May Wool, Dan Bonis. The Peekskill Coffeehouse, Peekskill. (914) 739-1287.

stepdaughter, wanders through the film playing “Besame Mucho”

Taylor is tentatively scheduled to speak following a screening

Marlene VerPlanck

September 17 at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck. (845) 876-2515;

8pm. Jazz vocalist. North Pointe Cultural Arts Center, Kinderhook. (518) 758-9234. $20/$16 members.

www.upstatefilms.org.

—Brian K. Mahoney

EVENTS Hudson Valley Arts Festival Call for times. Columbia County Fairground, Chatham. 246-9038. $7/$3.50 children.

8pm. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 255-1559. $11 members/ $15 non-members.

WORKSHOPS Your Intuitive Heart: Finding Your Psychic Self 7-9pm. Mirabai, Woodstock.

679-2100. $15/$20.

MUSIC Country Man Dan

SAT 24

11am-1pm. Country western. Poughkeepsie Farmers‘ Market, Poughkeepsie. 473-6955.

Associate Professor of Music Brian Mann 8pm. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

437-7404.

Helen Avakian 8-11pm. Acoustic, alternative, new age, original, solo. Maia Restaurant and Lounge, Poughkeepsie. 486-5004.

Blind Mice 9pm. Acoustic, folk, original. Hickory BBQ Smokehouse, Kingston. 338-2424.

THE OUTDOORS Family Outdoors Sporting Weekend Call for times. Frost Valley YMCA, Claryville. 985-2254.

Mohonk Preserve – The Longhouse Native Adventure 5pm. Spend the night in the Preserve‘s longhouse. Meet at Mohonk Preserve Visitor Center, New Paltz. 255-0919. $38/$40 non-members.

SPOKEN WORD Time to Talk: Kids and Courts, Part II of the Justice Series 7pm. Columbia County Judge Jonathan Nichols. Time and Space Limited, Hudson. (518) 822-8448.

THEATER Jesus Hopped The A Train 8pm. Stageworks Hudson, Hudson.

(518) 822-9667.

Sol Yaged Quintet

ART Warwick Artists‘ Open Studio Tour 10am-5pm. Warwick. sarahe@warwick.net.

Decidedly Diva: Part II 5-7pm. Anita Fields and Cheyenne Harris. Modo Gallery, Hudson.

(518) 828-5090.

CLASSES Reiki I and II Certification 10am-5pm. Become a certified Reiki practitioner. Woodstock. 336-4609.

Beginning Knitting 1-3pm. Yarn Swift, Poughkeepsie.

454-7444.

Fall Wild Plant ID 1-4pm. IES Continuing Education Program, Millbrook. 677-9643.

Inversions 3-5pm. The Iyengar monthly intensive featuring Barbara Boris. Satya Yoga Center, Rhinebeck. 876-2528.

EVENTS An Evening With the Stars Call for times. Benefit for the Winslow Therapeutic Center. Winslow Therapeutic Center, Warwick. 986-6686.

Autumn Jamboree Call for times. Pine Bush Farmer‘s Market, Pine Bush. 744-6763.

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of the 142-minute director’s cut of Arizona Dream on Saturday,

Mark Raisch 8-11pm. Cabaret, jazz, swing, vocals, American Standard. Brickhouse, Marlboro. 236-3765.

THE OUTDOORS Mohonk Preserve Singles Hike – Giant’s Workshop 9:30am-4pm. Strenuous 7-mile hike.

Mohonk Preserve, New Paltz. 255-0919.

Mohonk Preserve – Hudson River Valley Ramble 10am-2pm. Bonticou to Table Rocks.

Mohonk Preserve, New Paltz. 255-0919.

SPOKEN WORD Ulster County’s Earliest Industry 10:30am. Slide presentation. Bevier House Museum, Marbletown. 338-5614. $4.

Evening Photography Lecture Series 8pm. Bruce Davidson: A Life in Photography. Center for Photography, Woodstock. 679-6337.

THEATER Barrage 8pm. „Stomp“ with Fiddles. Ulster Performing Arts Center, Kingston.

339-6088. $37/$30 members.

Jesus Hopped The A Train 8pm. Stageworks Hudson, Hudson.

(518) 822-9667.

Pride and Soul 8pm. Multimedia musical comedy starring Stephanie Marshall and Keith „Wild Child“ Middleton of STOMP. Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, Poughkeepsie. 486-4571.

WORKSHOPS Pinhole Photography Call for times. Center for Photography, Woodstock. 679-9957.

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The Fine Art of Photography Call for times. Center for Photography, Woodstock. 679-9957.

Write Saturday 8:30am-4pm. With Wallkill Valley Writers.

New Paltz. 255-7090.

Miniature Painting 9am. Woodstock School of Art, Woodstock. 679-2388.

The Tenets and Practices of Buddhism 3:30pm. By the Venerable Lama Pema Wangdak. Buddhist Center, Philmont.

(518) 672-5216.

SUN 25 ART Warwick Artists‘ Open Studio Tour 10am-5pm. Warwick. sarahe@warwick.net.

The Peekskill Project 2-6pm. Paintings, sculpture, site-specific installations, and performances. Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill. (914) 788-7166.

Canvas and Sculpture

by Timothy Touhey 3:30pm. Class of 1929 Gallery, West Point. 938-2782.

CLASSES Medicinal Herb Class 9:30am-12:30pm/Beginner; 1:30-4: 30pm/Intermediate. Tinctures w/Karine Gordineer. Hyde Park. 297-7877. $35.

Reiki I and II Certification 10am-5pm. Become a certified Reiki practitioner. Woodstock. 336-4609.

Colonial Hearth Cooking Class

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12-6pm. Mount Gulian Historic Site, Beacon. 831-8172. $55.

Japanese Noodle Cooking 2-4pm. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 255-1559. $20 members/ $25 non-members.

EVENTS Bike For Cancer Care Check for times. Kingston. bikeforcancer.com.

Hudson Valley Garlic Festival 10am-5pm. Cantine Field, Saugerties.

246-3090.

FILM Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus 5pm. Time and Space Limited, Hudson.

(518) 822-8448. $4/$6.

MUSIC Faculty Concert 3pm. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

437-7404.

Teri Roiger (above), Ulster’s first lady of jazz singing, and vocalist

Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra and Chorale

Colony Café September 16 and 17: either show carries a $15

3pm. Choral, classical, solo, symphonic.

Twin Towers School, Middletown.

562-1800.

the 16th, Roiger brings her “A” band to the Colony to mark her

Vickie Russell

Jay Clayton bring a “jazz weekend with a twist” to Woodstock’s cover, but $20 scores both gigs, with sets at 8 and 9:30pm. On latest CD release, Still Life. Her trio—Frank Kimbrough (piano),

3pm. Acoustic, folk, original, pop, vocals.

Newburgh Library, Newburgh. 563-3601.

John Menegon (bass), and Matt Wilson (drums)—played with

All-Star Jazz

“Best Band of Festival.” Roiger, who often accompanies herself

7-11pm. Chowhound Café, Saugerties.

246-5158.

THE OUTDOORS Five Mountains in Five Days Call for times. Hiking. Frost Valley YMCA, Claryville. 985-2254.

Pfalz Point Trail Challenge 7:45am. Mohonk Preserve, New Paltz.

255-0919. $20.

Mohonk Preserve Singles Hike – Two Falls 9am-3pm. Moderate 8-mile hike. Meet at the Minnewaska State Park Preserve Peters Kill Lot, New Paltz. 255-0919.

Guided Tour of Main Street 2pm. David Baker, Hurley town historian.

Main Street, Hurley. 331-0593. $3.

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JAZZ TWIST

Dewey Redman at the Montreal Jazz Festival and were voted on piano, clings to the mike this time on new material, including two Redman/Roiger tunes, “Joie de Vivre” and “Dewey’s Tune (Tribute to Blackwell).”

Outskirts, an acoustic/electric trio comprised of Jay Clayton (vocals), Jane Ira Bloom (soprano sax), and Jerry Granelli (percussion), springs forth like this millennium’s answer to the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Their daring improv features traditional instruments enhanced by innovative electronics, and each member of the group contributes to the program. (845) 679-5342; www.jayclayton.com; www.teriroiger.com.

—DJ Wavy Davy

THEATER Jesus Hopped The A Train 2pm. Stageworks Hudson, Hudson.

(518) 822-9667.

MON 26

Lyceum

Robert Selkowitz

12-2pm. The vibrant music and culture of the Andes. Part of a month-long Dutchess Community College celebration of Hispanic Culture. Dutchess Theater, Poughkeepsie. 431-8039.

4pm. On his book, Painter’s Path.

Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, Arkville. 657-6982.

SPOKEN WORD Art in Food and Food in Art

CLASSES Carpathian Mountain Fiddle and Wooden Flute Group

7:30pm. Ms. Peter Rose. Hurley Reformed Church, Hurley. 331-0593.

Call for times. With Andriy Milavsky and Halia Remez. Meets every Monday in September. $10. Shawangunk Ridge Farm, Gardiner. 256-1206.

7:30pm. Eckankar Introductory Presentation. Senior Center at the Cantine Field, Saugerties.

(800) 749-7791.

SPOKEN WORD Open Mike Night 7pm. Featuring poets Elizabeth Miller and Ice. Colony Café, Woodstock. 679-5342. $3.

TUES 27 CLASSES Tai Chi Chuan 6pm. 8 sessions. Poughkeepsie.

452-7067.

Is Life A Random Walk

Community Shape Note Sing 7pm. Songs from the Sacred Harp.

Holy Cross Church, Kingston. 658-3485.

Open Mike 10:30pm. Snug‘s Tavern, New Paltz.

255-9800.

EVENTS Dinner & A Movie Spiritual Cinema Circle Call for times. The Garden at Thunder Hill, Rensselaerville. (518) 797-3373.

Woodstock Film Festival Call for times. Hiking, shopping, art, music, films, spirituality. Woodstock, Rhinebeck, Hunter and Rosendale, 679-4265.

MUSIC Ellison Starr 10pm. Acoustic, alternative, experimental, folk, original. Bacchus Restaurant, New Paltz. 255-8636.

6:30-7:30pm. With life coach Denise Lewis.

Howland Library, Beacon. 227-3190.

Seven Medicines 7-9:30pm. Mirabai, Woodstock.

679-2100. $25/$30.

FRI 30 ART The Glorious Kaaterskill Clove 6-8pm. New Paintings by Thomas Locker. Bonnie Andretta Fine Art, Inc., Hudson. (518) 828-1024.

BODY / MIND / SPIRIT Rising Above — A Journey to Wholeness The Garden at Thunder Hill, Rensselaerville. (518) 797-3373.

DANCE Flamenco Night 8pm. The Val Ramos Flamenco.

Mount Saint Mary College, Newburgh.

569-3221.

Zydeco Dance with Planet Zydeco 8-11pm. White Eagle Hall, Kingston.

255-7061. $12.

FILM Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus 7:30pm. Time and Space Limited, Hudson. $4/$6.

KIDS Star Bright: Astronomy 7:30-9pm. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 255-1559.

MUSIC The Cedar Walton Quartet

7pm. Rosendale Library, Rosendale.

658-9013.

8-11pm. Alternative, folk, pop, rock. Maia Restaurant and Lounge, Poughkeepsie. 486-5004.

THUR 29 BODY / MIND / SPIRIT Organic Mom - Formulas & Feeding 4:30-7pm. The Garden at Thunder Hill, Rensselaerville. (518) 797-3373.

MUSIC Artie Traum 7pm. Acoustic guitar, folk, blues and swing. Vanderlyn Hall Student Lounge, Stone Ridge. 687-5262. $8.

Helen Avakian

Mike Quick Band 9:30pm. Blues, r&b, soul. Corner Stage, Middletown. 342-4804.

Tivoli Street Painting Festival

10am-12:45pm. 6 sessions. IES Continuing Education Program, Millbrook.

677-9643.

Perennial Garden Design Primer 10am-2:30pm. IES Continuing Education Program, Millbrook. 677-9643.

EVENTS It Takes a Village to Raise a Child Call for times. Anderson School Gala.

Mid-Hudson Civic Center, Poughkeepsie.

889-4034 ext. 208.

Used Book Sale 10am-3pm. Woodstock Library, Woodstock. 679-2213.

Quaker Fair 10am-4pm. Crafts, games, books, food, drink. Friends Meeting House, Cornwall.

565-8210.

Adoption Day at the Catskill Animal Sanctuary 12-4pm. Catskill Animal Sanctuary, Saugerties. 336-8447.

FILM Abortion Diaries & Speak Out: I Had an Abortion 7:30pm. Time and Space Limited, Hudson. (518) 822-8448. $6 / $5 / $8.

MUSIC Mark Raisch 7-8pm. Jazz, swing, vocals, American Standards. Eisenhower Hall Theatre, West Point. 938-2782.

Eradicate and Testament 7:30pm. Heavy metal. The Chance, Poughkeepsie. 471-1966.

Northern Lights 8pm. Bluegrass and more. Unison Arts and Learning Center, New Paltz. 2551559. $15 members/ $18 non-members.

Vassar College Women‘s Chorus and Choir 8pm. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

437-7404.

The Zydeco Pilots

Thunder Ridge

10pm. Rock, zydeco. Bacchus Restaurant, New Paltz. 255-8636.

9pm. Country rock. Hickory Smokehouse BBQ Restaurant, Kingston. 338-2424.

Soñando

THE OUTDOORS Mohonk Preserve Singles Hike – Bonticou Crag

10pm. With performer Ruben Quintero.

El Coqui, Kingston. 340-1106.

Trace Adkins 8pm. Call for ticket prices. Ulster Performing Arts Center, Kingston.

339-6088.

WORKSHOPS Dyeing Yarn with Plant Colors Call for times. Six Saturday sessions.

Sunbridge College, Chestnut Ridge.

425-0055 ext. 24.

Wide Open Mike 8pm. All genres. Backstage Studio Productions, Kingston. 338-8700.

7-10pm. Rosendale Recreation Center, Rosendale. 658-9133.

CLASSES Soil Science

8pm. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

437-7404.

7:30pm. Stageworks Hudson, Hudson.

(518) 822-9667.

Revel: An Art Affair with Flair

WORKSHOPS Melt Your Stress Away

SPOKEN WORD Book Signing and Talk with Historian Marc Fried

THEATER Jesus Hopped The A Train

6-8pm. Artwork by Rodeny Alan Greenblat.

BCB Art, Hudson. (518) 828-4539.

SAT 1 OCT ART Catskills Crafts, Catskills Colors 2-5pm. GCCA Mountaintop Gallery, Windham. (518) 734-3104.

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WED 28

Modern Day

7:30pm. Stageworks Hudson, Hudson.

(518) 822-9667.

6:30-9:30pm. 2 sessions. IES Continuing Education Program, Millbrook. 677-9643.

6-9pm. Jazz. Lombardi‘s Restaurant, Gardiner. 255-9779.

4-6pm. Columbia County Council on the Arts Gallery, Hudson. (518) 671-6213.

4-6pm. Music and street entertainment as area artists reproduce the classics or their own work with chalk on eight foot pavement squares. Broadway, Tivoli.

757-4279.

THEATER Jesus Hopped The A Train

Mushrooms in the Fall

MUSIC Michael McCarthy Duo

ArtsWalk 2005

10am-3pm. 7mile hike with rock scrambling. Meet at the Spring Farm Trailhead, New Paltz. 255-0919.

SPOKEN WORD Photography Lecture Series 8pm. Keith Carter: Reinventing the World.

Center for Photography, Woodstock.

679-6337.

THEATER Jesus Hopped The A Train 8pm. Stageworks Hudson, Hudson.

(518) 822-9667.

WORKSHOPS Tenth Annual Hawk Migration Workshop 9:30am-1pm. Mohonk Preserve, New Paltz. 255-0919. $25/$17.

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Make Your Own Native American Dream Catcher 10am-4pm. Pine Hill Farmers and Artisians Market, Pine Hill. 254-5469.

Mohonk Preserve – Prescribed Burns at the Mohonk Preserve 2-4pm. Forest fire workshop. Mohonk Preserve, New Paltz. 255-0919.

SUN 2 OCT DANCE Swing Dance Jam 6:30-9pm. Arlington Reformed Church, Poughkeepsie. 339-3032. $5.

EVENTS House of Mirth Tour 1pm/3pm. Walk in the footsteps of Wharton’s heroine Lily Bart. Staatsburgh State Historic Site, Staatsburg. 889-8851.

Through the Ages Fashion Show 3pm. Clothing from the 1770‘s through the present. Rhinebeck Town Hall, Rhinebeck. 871-1777. $7.

MUSIC Judy Norman Solo Acoustic 1-5:30pm. Playing at the Walk to Cure Diabetes. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

297-8600.

Vassar Chapel 3pm. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

437-7404.

THE OUTDOORS Mohonk Preserve Singles Hike – Escarpment Trail 9am-5pm. Meet at Thruway Exit 20, New Paltz. 255-0919.

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SPOKEN WORD Nina Shengold, Author of Clearcut Call for time. Woodstock Film Festival, Woodstock. (212) 679-4265.

THEATER Jesus Hopped The A Train 2pm. Stageworks Hudson, Hudson.

(518) 822-9667.

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This celebration of wine, food, and music at Greig Farm in Red Hook will bring together 40 wineries from the Finger Lakes to Long Island and gourmet food vendors from all over New York state on September 10 and 11 (10am-5pm). A three-acre corn maze, hayrides, berry picking, and performances by area

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WINE FEST musicians will make it fun for the entire family. Proceeds from the $20 one-day and $30 two-day passes ($10/15 for minors and designated drivers; free for kids under 12) will benefit the Ulster and Dutchess County Cornell Cooperative Extensions. Purchase advance tickets at www.hudsonvalleywinefest.com. 窶認elicia Hodges

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BO DIDDLEY

HUDSON RIVER ARTS FEST Looking for a way to end your summer frugally? Does the phrase “no admission fees” sound pleasing?

Try the Hudson River Arts Festival, presented by the Bardavon, back at the Poughkeepsie waterfront for its 10th year.

Headlining will be rhythm and blues legend Bo Diddley and America’s Polka King (and Hudson Valley native), Jimmy Sturr.

McComb, Mississippi’s own Bo Diddley, born Ellas Otha Bates McDaniel, is the originator of the “bomp-budda-bomp-bomp, bomp-bomp-bomp,” or “Bo Diddley beat,” which later appeared in such one-hit wonders as the Strangeloves’ “I Want Candy.” As Diddley himself tells his audiences, “I thank you in advance for the great round of applause I’m about to get.”

Jimmy Sturr, America’s Polka King, has received 14 Grammies for his work, which takes polka and merges it with pop, dance, and salsa music.

Back for its eighth year on the main and second stages, the Dutchess Arts Council’s “One River: Many Streams” will feature the music and dance of India, Ireland, Poughkeepsie, and West Africa. Acts will include the Kantham Chatlapalli Classical Indian Dancers, Father Charlie Coen & Friends, the Little Sammy Davis Band, the Spirits of Unity Gospel Singers, and, from Cote d’Ivoire, the dancing/drumming act Les Guirivores. The Arts Council will also host a number of workshops, where participants can learn about everything from origami to Puerto Rican jibaro music.

There will also be a ferry boat making trips up and down the Hudson (for a $5 fee), face painting, and a farmer’s market, with fireworks following Diddley’s performance.

The Hudson River Arts Festival runs from 12 to 10pm on Saturday, September 17, and the fireworks will begin around 9:30pm. Admission to the festival is free, but a $2 donation per person is suggested. 845-473-5288; www.bardavon.org.

—Sam Baden

172

galleries ALBANY INSTITUTE OF HISTORY AND ART

CATSKILLS GALLERY

125 WASHINGTON AVENUE, ALBANY. (518) 463-4478.

106 PARTITION STREET, SAUGERTIES. 246-5552.

“Exhibition by Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region.”

Through September 4.

“Primitive Visions: Paintings of Images From Ancient Cultures.”

Patty Hanson. September 10-October 1.

“Albany Underground Artists.” September 14-September 18.

Opening Saturday, September 10, 5-7pm.

ALBERT SHAHINIAN FINE ART

CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AT WOODSTOCK

196 MAIN STREET, POUGHKEEPSIE. 454-0522.

59 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK. 679-9957.

“Showcase for Beginning and Longtime Art Collectors.”

“Regional Triennial of Photographic Works.”

“Works on Paper.” Through September 11.

“Ambiguous Icons.” Jim Campbell. September 3-October 23.

Reception Saturday, September 10, 5-7pm.

ALDRICH CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM 258 MAIN STREET, RIDGEFIELD, CT. (203) 438-4519.

“Emil Lukas: Connection to the Curious.”

“Sarah Morris: Los Angeles.” Through October 9.

“Fred Wilson: Black Like Me.”

CLARK ART INSTITUTE 225 SOUTH STREET, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA. (413) 458-2303.

“50 Favorites.” 50 works of art follow the Institute’s 50 years history. Through May 17.

“Lisa Sigal: A House of Many Mansions.” Through January 8.

“Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile.” Exploring his postRevolutionary years. Through September 5.

ART GALLERY AT ROCKEFELLER STATE PARK PRESERVE

CLASS OF 1929 GALLERY

ROUTE 117, TARRYTOWN. (914) 631-1470 EXT. 12.

“Whispered Wisdom.” Through October 22.

EISENHOWER HALL THEATRE, WEST POINT. 938-2782.

“Canvas and Sculpture by Timothy Touhey.”

September 25-October 30.

Opening Sunday, September 25, 3:30pm.

10 DOWNS STREET, KINGSTON. 532-2448.

“Governing Bodies.” Exploring the historical, political and cultural influences that have shaped women’s lives.

September 2-September 30.

COFFEY GALLERY 330 WALL STREET, KINGSTON. 339-6105.

“New Work By Jenny Nelson and Deirdre Leber.”

September 3-September 25.

Reception Saturday, September 3, 5-7pm.

the forecast

AWAKE GALLERY

B&G WINE AND GOURMET 2633 ROUTE 23, HILLSDALE. (518) 325-4882.

“New Works By Steve Rosenzweig.” Through September 3.

COLUMBIA COUNTY COUNCIL ON THE ARTS GALLERY 209 WARREN STREET, HUDSON. (518) 671-6213.

BAU 159 MAIN STREET, BEACON. 591-2331.

“Arts Walk 2005.” October 1-October 10.

Reception Saturday, October 1, 4-6pm.

“Dogs and Ponies.” Harald Plochberger. Through September 4.

DEBORAH DAVIS FINE ART BCB ART 116 WARREN STREET, HUDSON. (518) 828-4539.

345 WARREN STREET, HUDSON. (518) 822-1890.

“A Sense of Place.” Exhibition by 4 artists. Through September 25.

“Summer Exhibition.” Through September 11.

“Modern Day.” Artwork by Rodeny Alan Greenblat.

October 1-November 13.

Reception Saturday, October 1, 6-8pm.

BETSY JACARUSO STUDIO & GALLERY 54 ELIZABETH STREET, RED HOOK. 758-9244.

“Mentored Work Exhibiting Artist, Deirdre McGowan.”

Through September 10.

BONNIE ANDRETTA FINE ART, INC. 415 WARREN STREET, HUDSON. (518) 828-1024.

“The Glorious Kaaterskill Clove.” New paintings by Thomas Locker. September 30-November 30.

Opening Friday, September 30, 6-8pm.

CARRIE HADDAD GALLERY 622 WARREN STREET, HUDSON.

“Pulp: Works on Paper.” Group showing through September 25.

DIA 3 BEEKMAN STREET, BEACON. 400-0100.

“Dia’s Andy: Through the Lens of Patronage.”

Works by Andy Warhol.

“In and Out of Place: Louise Lawler and Andy Warhol.”

Includes images of work by Andy Warhol.

“Vera Lutter: Nabisco Factory, Beacon.” 4 large scale pinhole photographs of the factory. Through April 10.

“Agnes Martin’s Early Paintings 1957-67.” Through December 1.

EARL FEIDEN 661 BROADWAY, KINGSTON. 331-2230.

“The Camera Had A Nervous Twitch.”

An interactive video installation. Through October 15.

EMILY HOYSRADT GALLERY 209 CLINTON AVENUE, KINGSTON. 338-6844.

“West of Woodstock: A Year of Change.”

Oil paintings Ida Marx. September 3-September 30.

Opening Saturday, September 3, 4-7pm.

173

galleries FENIMORE ART MUSEUM ROUTE 80, LAKE ROAD, COOPERSTOWN. (888) 547-1450.

“Eugene & Claire Thaw Collection of American Indian Art.” Through December 31.

FRANCES LEHMAN LOEB ART CENTER

KARPELES MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY MUSEUM 94 BROADWAY, NEWBURGH. 569-4997.

“Napoleon.” Through September 30.

“The Art of Robin Cobbs and Harriet Phillips.”

Multiple media and styles. September 1-October 31.

Reception Sunday, September 4, 4-6pm.

VASSAR COLLEGE, POUGHKEEPSIE. 437-5632.

“Danish Paintings of the 19th Century.”

Rarely seen Danish works. September 30-December 18.

“Jim Dine Prints: 1985-2002.” Through September 11.

GALERIE BMG 12 TANNERY BROOK ROAD, WOODSTOCK. 679-0027.

KIESENDAHL + CALHOUN GALLERY 192 MAIN STREET, BEACON. 838-1177.

“The Mind’s Eye.” Leonard Stokes and Laura Von Rosk.

September 15-October 17.

Reception Sunday, September 18, 3-5:30pm.

“Enter Here.” Enrico Giodano. Through September 12.

“Photographs by Lori Nix.” September 2-October 3.

Reception Saturday, September 10, 5-7pm.

KINDERWOOD DESIGNER SHOWHOUSE 452 WEST MOUNTAIN RD, RIDGEFIELD, CT. (203) 393-1101 EXT. 166.

GALLERY AT R&F 506 BROADWAY, KINGSTON. 331-3112.

“Benefit the Good Friend Program of Green Chimneys.”

September 27-October 23.

“Cross-Section of Chaos.” Through September 24.

KLEINERT/JAMES GALLERY GCCA CATSKILL GALLERY 398 MAIN STREET, CATSKILL. (518) 943 -3400.

34 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK. 679-5646.

“Passionate About Art.” Through September 18.

the forecast

“Pulp Visions.” Artworks created with paper as the primary medium.

“Brooklyn to the Catskill.” James Dustin. Through October 1.

KLYNE ESOPUS MUSEUM ROUTE 9W, ULSTER PARK. 338-8109.

“Esopus Goes to War:1941-1945.” September 1-November 30.

GCCA MOUNTAINTOP GALLERY WINDHAM. (518) 734-3104.

“Spaces and Places.” Artworks in all media about Catskills architecture. Through September 25.

MAXWELL FINE ARTS

“Catskills Crafts, Catskills Colors.” October 1-November 6.

“All Over the Place” by Marcy B. Freedman and “Genesis” by Lori Nozick. September 23-November 20.

Opening Saturday, October 1, 2-5pm.

HALF MOON GALLERY 18 MARKET STREET, SAUGERTIES. 246-9114.

“Half Moon in June.” Recent works by Nancy Campbell, Angela Gaffney-Smith, Michelle Moran, Jacquie Roland and Lora Shelley. Through September 11.

1204 MAIN STREET, PEEKSKILL. 737-8622.

MARK GRUBER GALLERY NEW PALTZ PLAZA, NEW PALTZ. 255-1241.

“The Sky Above.” Group Show. Through September 7.

MODO GALLERY 506 WARREN STREET, HUDSON. (518) 828-5090.

HUDSON OPERA HOUSE 327 WARREN STREET, HUDSON. (518) 822-1438.

“Life Lines.” Marilyn Reynolds. Through October 1.

“Couter/Cultured Pop Icons, Urban Landscapes, Skateboards & Gas Masks.” Group exhibition. Through September 3.

“Decidedly Diva: Part II.” Anita Fields and Cheyenne Harris.

September 24-October 30.

Opening Saturday, September 24, 5-7pm.

HUDSON VALLEY CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART 1701 MAIN STREET, PEEKSKILL. (914) 788-7166.

MORGAN LEHMAN GALLERY

“Figure it Out.” Sculpture and video. Through March 31.

24 SHARON ROAD, LAKEVILLE. (860) 435-0898.

“The Peekskill Project.” Paintings, sculpture, site-specific installations, and performances. September 24-October 16.

“Contemporary Landscape Exhibition.” Through September 11.

“Migrators.” Works by Karl Saliter. Through November 13.

Reception Sunday, September 25, 2-6pm.

NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM INQUIRING MIND ART GALLERY

9 GLENDALE ROAD, STOCKBRIDGE, MA. (413) 298-4100.

65 PARTITION STREET, SAUGERTIES. 246-5155.

“The Art of the New Yorker: 80 Years in the Vanguard.”

“5 More Points of View.” Allen Bryan, Bruce Bundock, Doris Goldberg, Elin Menzies and Doug Shippee.

Through September 18.

“Windblown: Contemporary American Weathervanes.”

Through October 31.

JAMES DOUGLAS GALLERY 22 RAILROAD AVENUE, MONTGOMERY. 978-1371.

“Visual Memories: Images from Artistic Journeys” Group showing of prints and mixed media works. T hrough September 29.

174

NORTH POINTE CULTURAL ARTS CENTER 62 CHATHAM STREET, KINDERHOOK. (518) 758-9234.

“Works By Gary Masline and Kevin Kaszubowsk.”

September 9-October 8.

Opening Friday, September 9, 5:30-7:30pm.

galleries UNISON ARTS AND LEARNING CENTER 65 MOUNTAIN REST ROAD, NEW PALTZ. 255-1559.

OPEN STUDIO 402 MAIN STREET, CATSKILL. (518) 943-9531.

“Breaking the Vicious Circle and Other Invocations.”

Works influenced by shamanic art and artifacts.

Through September 30.

“Judy Sigunick Paintings & Monoprints.” September 4-October 2.

“Outdoor Sculpture Garden.” September 4-October 31.

Opening Sunday, September 4, 4-6pm.

VARGA RICHARD SENA GALLERY

130 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK. 679-4005.

238 WARREN STREET, HUDSON. (518) 828-1996.

“September Sculpture Show.” September 6-September 25.

“Photography by Patricia Nolan & Stevan Jennis.”

September 6-October 10.

Reception Saturday, September 10, 6-9pm.

Opening Saturday, September 10, 6-9pm.

WINDHAM FINE ARTS 5380 MAIN STREET, WINDHAM. (518) 734-6850.

RIVERS & ESTUARIES CENTER 199 MAIN STREET, BEACON. 838-1600.

“Through The Artists’ Eyes.” Through September 11.

“Don Nice: Hudson River Fish.” Through September 24.

WOODSTOCK ARTISTS’ ASSOCIATION 28 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK. 679-2940.

RIVERWINDS GALLERY 172 MAIN STREET, BEACON. 838-2880.

“In The Realm of Imagination.”

Paintings , Prints and Sculpture. Through October 30.

“It’s All About Color.” Works by Alison Shaw and Rita Pignato. Through September 5.

“The Shining Kingdom.” Works by Hatti Iles portray fantasy and fairytale figures. Through August 28.

SALIGMANN HOMESTEAD

YELLOW BIRD GALLERY

23 WHITE OAK DRIVE, SUGAR LOAF. 469-9459.

19 FRONT STREET, NEWBURGH. 561-7204.

“Exhibition by Michael Steiner.” Through September 5.

“Torosaurus On View.” September 2-September 5.

Reception Saturday, September 3, 4-7pm.

SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART SUNY NEW PALTZ, NEW PALTZ. 257-3880.

“Recycled, Revisited.” Through September 18.

ZAHRA STUDIO GALLERY 496 MAIN STREET, BEACON. 838-6311.

SHAKER MUSEUM AND LIBRARY

the forecast

“Then and Now.” Photography exhibit tracing changes in Orange County. September 8-September 30.

“Spray Paint 2005.” Airbrush in modern art.

September 10-October 1.

88 SHAKER MUSEUM RD, OLD CHATHAM. (518) 794-9100.

“Notable Neighbors: The Shaker Legacy in Columbia County.” Through October 31.

SPENCERTOWN ACADEMY 790 ROUTE 203, SPENCERTOWN. (518) 392-3693.

“Flowing to the Hudson.” Landscape paintings.

Through September 25.

ST. JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH 352 MAIN ST, GREAT BARRINGTON, MA. (413) 623-2068.

“Sculpture Now.” Outdoor sculpture exhibit.

Through August 23.

STORM KING ART CENTER OLD PLEASANT HILL ROAD, MOUNTAINVILLE. 534-3115.

“Richard Bellany and Mark di Suervo.”

Through November 13.

TIME AND SPACE LIMITED 434 COLUMBIA STREET, HUDSON. (518) 822-8448.

“Women’s Work.” Work created by women and the work of women. September 10-October 10.

Opening Saturday, September 10, 6-8pm

TIVOLI ARTISTS CO-OP 60 BROADWAY, TIVOLI. 758-9544.

“2nd Annual Show & Sale of Small Works and Fine Crafts.”

Through September 4.

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index of advertisers 176

23 BROADWAY A AND E FINE ART A PLACE IN TIME INTERIORS ABSOLUTE LASER ACCOLLA, DYLANA ACORN HILL HEALING ARTS ADAM’S PIANO ADAMS FAIRACRE FARMS ADVANCED AESTHETICS OF NEW PALTZ ADVANCED THERAPEUTIC SOLUTIONS AFFUSO PLUMBING AFLAC AGRA TANDOOR AGWAY OF NEW PALTZ AMERIPRISE FINANCIAL ANA MARIE ORGANIC OLIVE OIL ANDERSON SCHOOL ANDERSON, MARISA ANDREA TORRINS ANDREWS, ALICE ANDROGYNY ANNETTE’S HEART AND SOUL HOLISTIC CENTER APPLIED OSTEOPATHY ARIEL BOOKSELLERS ARMADILLO AROMA OSTERIA ARROWSMITH FORGE ASHTANGA YOGA SHALA AYUSHAKTI AYURVED US BABCOCK, KENT – MSW, CSW BACK COUNTRY OUTFITTERS BAKHRU, DR. ARUNA BARCONE’S MUSIC BARD COLLEGE PUBLIC RELATIONS BARDAVON OPERA HOUSE BARNER BOOKS BARRETT ART CENTER BELL, JAMAINE BELVEDERE MANSION BERGEN, AKAMA & RAY BERNSTEIN, ADAM BESO BETTERWAY DIAPER SERVICE BINK BLACKSTONE, JUDITH BLANTON, DIANE BLISS STUDIOS BLISS YOGA CENTER BLISSFUL BEAUTY BY BRENDA BLUE BIRD ARTWORKS BLUE MOUNTAIN BISTRO BOB AUDE BODHI MASSAGE AND BODYWORK STUDIO BOOK COVE BOP TO TOTTOM BREWERY OMMEGANG BRIGHT, PRISCILLA BROADWAY THEATER/UPAC BROFFMAN, KARY BROWNSTEIN, DAVID BURT’S ELECTRONICS CANCIENNE, JAMES CAPITAL FINANCIAL PLANNING CARLSEN GALLERY CARROLL, JOHN M. CATSKILL ART & OFFICE SUPPLY CATSKILL MOUNTAIN MIDWIFERY CATSKILL NATIVE NURSERY CENTER FOR ADVANCED DENTISTRY CENTER FOR CREATIVITY AND WORK CENTER FOR DENTAL WELLNESS CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS AT RHINEBECK CENTER FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH MUSIC CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AT WOODSTOCK CENTER FOR POSITIVE THINKING CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING COMPANY CHINESE HEALING ARTS CHOW HOUND CLASSIC COUNTRY CLASSIC DANISH DESIGN COFFEY GALLERY COLUMBIA COUNTY COUNCIL ON THE ARTS COME COOK WITH ME COMMON FIRE COOL COVER CORAL ACRES COSIMOS COYOTE GRILL CUNNEEN-HACKETT CULTURAL CENTER CURIOUS MINDS MEDIA DARMSTADT OVERHEAD DOORS DECHARD, KATE DEEP CLAY ART AND THERAPY DESIGNING SHAPES NAIL & HAIR SALON DESTEFANO & ASSOCIATES DEVI, SUNDER

KINGSTON KINGSTON KINGSTON RHINEBECK WOODSTOCK OLIVE BRIDGE GERMANTOWN POUGHKEEPSIE NEW PALTZ HURLEY MARLBORO POUGHKEEPSIE RHINEBECK NEW PALTZ RHINEBECK PLEASANT VALLEY STAATSBURG MILTON COLD SPRING NEW PALTZ NEW PALTZ BEACON NEW PALTZ NEW PALTZ KINGSTON WAPPINGERS FALLS MILLBROOK NEW PALTZ NORTHVALE WOODSTOCK KENT POUGHKEEPSIE KINGSTON ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON POUGHKEEPSIE NEW PALTZ POUGHKEEPSIE BEARSVILLE STAATSBURG SAUGERTIES LANESVILLE NEW PALTZ KINGSTON WARWICK WOODSTOCK CHESTER MONTGOMERY WOODSTOCK KINGSTON WOODSTOCK WOODSTOCK HURLEY HUDSON PAWLING KINGSTON COOPERSTOWN MT. TREMPER KINGSTON RHINEBECK NEW PALTZ KINGSTON HUDSON LATHAM GREENVILLE HURLEY KINGSTON COTTEKILL KERHONKSON HIGHLAND WOODSTOCK YORKTOWN HEIGHTS RHINEBECK LAGRANGEVILLE WOODSTOCK PAWLING WHITE RIVER JUNCTION KINGSTON SAUGERTIES EAST CHATHAM AMENIA KINGSTON HUDSON WALLKILL GERMANTOWN KINGSTON GARDINER NEWBURGH POUGHKEEPSIE POUGHKEEPSIE GARDINER KINGSTON RHINEBECK GARDINER RHINEBECK PORT EWEN PIERMONT

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845-339-2322 845-331-5077 845-331-3586 845-876-7100 914-388-7789 845-657-2516 845-343-2326 845-454-4330 845-255-1919 845-399-7150 845-236-7160 845-401-1237 845-876-7510 845-255-0050 845-876-1157 845-635-2530 845-889-4034 845-795-1173 845-702-4142 845-256-1127 845-256-0620 845-440-0724 845-687-7589 845-255-8041 845-339-1550 845-298-6790 845-677-5687 845-255-7978 919-624-1998 845-679-3898 860-927-3377 845-463-1044 845-331-6089 845-758-7512 845-471-5313 845-255-2635 845-471-2550 845-358-8190 845-889-8000 845-246-1640 518-589-7140 845-231-2191 845-338-1211 845-988-2465 845-679-7005 845-325-2090 845-457-9821 845-679-8700 845-616-9818 845-679-4659 845-679-8519 845-338-0084 518-828-2233 845-855-9590 845-338-8100 607-544-1802 845-688-7175 845-331-1613 845-876-6753 845-256-9830 845-331-5011 518-828-2528 518-867-4000 518-634-2466 845-338-8420 845-331-7780 845-687-2229 845-626-3502 845-691-5600 845-336-8318 914-245-4041 845-876-3080 845-677-5871 845-679-9957 845-855-5000 802-295-6300 845-338-6045 845-246-5158 518-392-2211 845-373-7238 845-339-6105 518-671-6213 845-566-5542 518-537-2172 914-329-1414 845-255-7281 845-567-1556 845-471-0600 845-486-4571 845-790-3357 845-331-0191 845-871-1794 845-417-1369 845-876-1777 845-339-4601 845-405-1165

DIAMOND, RACHAEL DIGUISEPPE ARCHITECTURE DISCOVERY INSTITUTE / PRESENT COMPANY DIVISION STREET GRILL DRUMS OF WOODSTOCK DUTCHESS COMMUNITY COLLEGE DUTCHESS COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS DUTCHESS MENTAL HYGIENE E-VILLE OUTFITTERS EARLY EDUCATION CENTER ECO-ARCH DESIGN WORKS ED’S SERVICE MOTORCYCLES ELLINWOOD, LYDIA EMERSON PLACE EMPIRE STATE BANK ENCHANTED MANOR OF WOODSTOCK EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF CHRIST THE KING ESOTEC EVEREADY DINER EVERYDAY WELLNESS FOR WOMEN EXCLUSIVELY EQUINE PROPERTIES, LLC FAUX INTENTIONS FELDENKRAIS FINANCIAL CLEANSING FIONN REILLY PHOTOGRAPHY FIRST STREET DANCEWEAR FLOWER NEST FLOWING SPIRIT GUIDANCE FOREIGN WIDE FOREST STUDIO FOR BODY/MIND FITNESS FRANCIS DUNNERY PSYCHOLOGICAL ASTROLOGY FREED, TAMMY FRESH COMPANY FRISCH, AMY FROG HOLLOW FARM GABRIELS GALARIE BMG GARDINER LIBRARY GARRISON ART CENTER GARRISON INSTITUTE GENERALE, DONNA GEORGE COLE AUCTIONEERS GINO’S RESTAURANT GLASSBLOWING.COM GOLDEN NOTEBOOK GRAHAM CONSTRUCTION GRANDIFLORA GREAT FOOD & CO GREGORY, CARTER GREIG FARM GREYSTONE PROGRAMS INC. GRUMBINE, ANDREA H HOUST & SON HALDORA HANA SUSHI HAND IN HAND - A HEALER’S CONNECTION HAVEN HEALTHY GOURMET TO GO, INC. HEALTHY LIVING MAGAZINE HEAVEN AND EARTH HIGHLAND CAFE HOFFMAN HOUSE TAVERN HONDA OF KINGSTON HOPEWELL NUTRITION CENTER HOULIHAN LAWRENCE LAVERY REAL ESTATE HUDSON RIVER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER HUDSON VALLEY CLEAN ENERGY, INC. HUDSON VALLEY ELECTROLYSIS HUDSON VALLEY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION HUDSON VALLEY GARLIC FESTIVAL HUDSON VALLEY LEARNING CENTER HUDSON VALLEY PHOTOGRAPHY HUDSON VALLEY SCHOOL OF MASSAGE HUDSON VALLEY SUDBURY SCHOOL HUDSON VALLEY SUNROOMS HUMBACH, IRENE HUMMINGBIRD JEWELERS HYMES, KATE IN GOOD TASTE INQUIRING MIND BOOKSTORE INSTITUTE OF ECOSYSTEM STUDIES INSTITUTE OF TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY INTUITIVE VISION IONE JACK’S MEATS & DELI JACOBOWITZ & GUBITS JACQUELINE T. MARTIN, PLLC JAI MA JENKINSTOWN DAY SPA JOSHUA’S RESTAURANT JOYOUS CAFE KARMA TRIYANA DARMACHAKRA KASMIN PIRTLE KEEPSAKE FARM MARKET & COUNTRY BAKE SHOP KENT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE KENT VIDEO AND PHOTO

HIGHLAND NEW YORK NEW PALTZ PEEKSKILL WOODSTOCK POUGHKEEPSIE RHINEBECK POUGHKEEPSIE ELLENVILLE HIGHLAND SAUGERTIES HYDE PARK NEW PALTZ KINGSTON NEWBURGH WOODSTOCK STONE RIDGE KINGSTON HYDE PARK RED HOOK GOSHEN RED HOOK DOYLESTOWN NEW HARTFORD SAUGERTIES SAUGERTIES KINGSTON MT. TREMPER NEW PALTZ NEW PALTZ SHARON NEW PALTZ GARRISON ROSENDALE ESOPUS KINGSTON WOODSTOCK GARDINER GARRISON GARRISON RHINEBECK RED HOOK WAPPINGERS FALLS POUGHKEEPSIE WOODSTOCK KERHONKSON RED HOOK STAATSBURG PINE PLAINS RED HOOK POUGHKEEPSIE NEW PALTZ WOODSTOCK RHINEBECK RED HOOK HOPEWELL JUNCTION RHINEBECK WOODSTOCK KINGSTON NEW PALTZ HIGHLAND KINGSTON KINGSTON HOPEWELL JUNCTION EAST FISHKILL FISHKILL RHINEBECK POUGHKEEPSIE POUGHKEEPSIE SAUGERTIES NEW PALTZ KINGSTON HIGHLAND NEW PALTZ BEACON POUGHKEEPSIE RHINEBECK NEW PALTZ NEW PALTZ CATSKILL MILLBROOK PALO ALTO PORT WASHINGTON KINGSTON NEW PALTZ WALDEN POUGHKEEPSIE NEW PALTZ NEW PALTZ WOODSTOCK KINGSTON WOODSTOCK PINE PLAINS HOPEWELL JUNCTION KENT KENT

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845-883-9642 212-439-9611 845-255-2242 914-739-6380 845-810-0442 845-431-8405 845-876-4001 845-486-2762 845-647-3377 845-883-5151 845-247-4620 845-454-6210 845-255-5294 845-340-4706 845-451-7804 845-679-9012 845-626-4736 845-246-0965 845-229-8100 845-758-0790 845-294-4224 845-532-3067 215-230-9208 315-732-3649 845-246-4230 845-247-4517 845-331-4440 845-679-7886 845-255-8822 845-255-2243 860-318-0624 845-729-3728 845-424-8204 845-658-3730 845-384-6424 845-338-7161 845-679-0027 845-255-1255 845-424-3960 845-424-4800 845-876-1777 845-758-9114 845-297-8061 845-297-7334 845-679-8000 845-626-3402 845-758-2020 845-229-0209 845-334-2762 845-758-1234 845-452-5772 845-255-8830 845-679-2115 845-876-6250 845-758-4333 845-897-3280 845-876-7369 845-339-7171 845-334-8600 845-255-5777 845-691-6913 845-338-2626 845-338-5400 845-223-3050 845-227-4400 845-896-1888 845-876-3767 845-473-4747 845-463-3011 845-246-5956 845-255-4704 845-340-9016 845-255-0013 845-679-1002 845-838-1235 845-485-5933 845-876-4585 845-255-7090 845-255-0110 518-943-7772 845-677-7600 650-493-4430 212-455-8016 845-339-5776 845-255-2244 845-778-2121 845-485-6800 845-256-0465 845-255-3160 845-679-5533 845-334-9441 845-679-5906 518-398-6298 845-897-2266 860-927-1463 860-927-3279

KENT BEACON NEW PALTZ KINGSTON KINGSTON MINEOLA KINGSTON NEW PALTZ BEARSVILLE HIGH FALLS RED HOOK NY NEW PALTZ NEW PALTZ NEW PALTZ NEW PALTZ PEEKSKILL MILTON MILLBROOK HUDSON KINGSTON KINGSTON ROSENDALE POUGHKEEPSIE NEW PALTZ KINGSTON WOODSTOCK AMHERST NEW PALTZ PHOENICIA RHINEBECK KINGSTON NEWBURGH FISHKILL NEW YORK KINGSTON NEW PALTZ NEW PALTZ KINGSTON MOUNT LAUREL NEW PALTZ BROOKLYN MONTGOMERY PHOENICIA CORNWALL COOPERSTOWN NEWBURGH PORT EWEN STOCKBRIDGE RED HOOK KENT NEWBURGH STONE RIDGE WOODSTOCK DOVER PLAINS RHINEBECK SEATTLE RHINEBECK KERHONKSON ACCORD WAPPINGERS FALLS LAKEVILLE SAUGERTIES KINGSTON KINGSTON GREAT BARRINGTON WOODSTOCK RHINEBECK WOODSTOCK HUDSON NEW PALTZ RHINEBECK TALLAHASSEE NEW PALTZ MIDDLETOWN POUGHKEEPSIE POUGHKEEPSIE POUGHKEEPSIE WOODSTOCK NEW PALTZ POUGHKEEPSIE KENT RHINEBECK RHINEBECK POUGHKEEPSIE RHINEBECK RED HOOK KINGSTON WOODSTOCK ROSENDALE ROSENDALE HIGH FALLS HUDSON ROSENDALE NEW PALTZ RHINEBECK

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860-927-3033 845-838-1177 845-255-2398 845-339-1128 845-342-6454 845-729-0608 845-331-0237 845-255-9717 845-679-6500 845-687-9463 845-758-0061 845-876-1016 845-255-2600 845-256-1420 845-255-9902 845-255-1241 914-737-8622 845-464-2789 845-677-5857 518-828-7770 845-339-6925 845-331-6233 845-658-3655 845-473-1510 845-255-6482 845-336-4444 845-679-2100 800-333-6393 845-255-6800 845-688-2122 845-876-4861 845-336-5541 845-561-0800 845-896-6291 212-645-5170 973-831-5804 845-255-0162 845-255-1200 845-338-6640 856-914-9111 845-255-0243 718-625-6850 845-457-2442 845-688-2211 845-534-1010 607-547-1426 845-564-2660 845-339-1684 413-298-4100 845-758-2005 860-927-3069 845-569-1425 845-687-2200 845-679-4135 845-832-9311 845-876-0259 206-285-9615 845-876-7338 845-626-4200 845-626-8195 845-298-6060 860-435-1011 845-331-0100 845-338-8282 845-338-5984 413-528-7767 845-679-2373 845-876-8606 845-679-5333 518-929-0931 845-255-0559 845-876-7722 206-567-4455 845-255-1030 845-343-4040 845-458-6243 845-454-2000 845-437-5902 845-430-1290 845-255-3899 845-471-1360 860-927-4145 845-876-6122 845-876-5556 845-454-8555 845-876-0494 845-758-8445 845-339-7222 845-246-1020 845-658-3210 845-658-7673 845-687-2109 518-828-1034 845-658-3315 845-256-0504 845-876-2528

SAUGERTIES BALLET CENTER SAUNDERSKILL FARMS SCHNEIDER, BRUCE SCHNEIDER, CONNIE SCHNEIDER, PFAHL AND RAHME SCHOOL FOR YOUNG ARTISTS SHADOWLAND THEATER SHAKER MUSEUM & LIBRARY SHAKTI YOGA SILO RIDGE SIVANANDA ASHRAM YOGA RANCH SKYDIVE THE RANCH SOMETHING SWEET DESSERT CAFE SOUL DOG SPIRIT ROOT SERVICES SPIRITTUS HOLISTIC RESOURCE CENTER ST. FRANCIS HOSPITAL ST. FRANCIS HOSPITAL STEIN-WAY DOG TRAINING STORMVILLE AIRPORT - ANTIQUES SHOW SUNFLOWER NATURAL FOOD MARKET SUNSTONE HERB FARM SUNY CONTINUING & PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION SWALLOW, JUDY TAROT ON THE HUDSON TAYLOR CSW-R, MARY TERRAPIN THE CHILDREN’S ART WORKSHOP THE CUP 13 THE DRAWING ROOM THE DREAMING GODDESS THE EDUCATED DOG THE FINISHERS TOUCH THE FRENCH CORNER THE GARRISON THE LIVING SEED THE MORRISON GALLERY THE MOVEMENT CENTER THE OWL AND THE SERPENT THE PEARL GALLERY THE RIVER POOL THE SANCTUARY THE STORY IS THE JOURNEY THE WRITE SELF TIGERLILY COMMUNICATIONS TIME AND SPACE LIMITED TIME HONORED TIMELY SIGNS TISCHLER FAMILY DENTAL CENTER TORCHES ON THE HUDSON TOTAL IMMERSION SWIM STUDIO TOWN AND COUNTRY RESIDENTIAL SERVICES TOWN TINKER TUMBLING FALLS TYCHOSTUP, LORNA UGLY GUS CAFE & BAR ULSTER BALLET COMPANY ULSTER SAVINGS BANK UMAMI CAFE UNISON ARTS & LEARNING CENTER UPHOLSTERY UNLIMITED UPSTATE FILMS VAN BRUNT GALLERY VASSAR BROTHERS MEDICAL CENTER VEGAN LIFESTYLE COACHING VINCITORE’S PIANOS & ORGANS VIOLET ALCHEMY VITAMIN NAVIGATOR WAINWRIGHT, ANDREW WARREN KITCHEN & CUTLERY WASABI JAPANESE RESTAURANT WAY, SCOTT WDST 100.1 RADIO WOODSTOCK WEBJOGGER INTERNET SERVICES WELLNESS CENTER OF HYDE PARK WELLSPRING WESTON INSURANCE BROKERAGE INC WESTWOOD METES & BOUNDS REALTY WHITE HORSE WINE & LIQUOR WHITE RICE WHITECLIFF VINEYARD WILLIAMS LUMBER & HOME CENTER WINDCHIME REALTY WOMEN WITH WISDOM WOMEN’S CARE CENTER WOMEN’S STUDIO WORKSHOP WOODSTOCK ARTISTS STUDIO TOUR WOODSTOCK DAY SCHOOL WOODSTOCK DESIGN WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL WORLD PEACE PRAYER SOCIETY WVKR YOGA ON DUCK POND ZEN MOUNTAIN MONASTERY ZWEIG, JULIE

SAUGERTIES ACCORD NEW PALTZ NEW PALTZ WOODSTOCK BEARSVILLE ELLENVILLE OLD CHATHAM KINGSTON AMENIA WOODBOURNE GARDINER MIDDLETOWN POUGHKEEPSIE HOPEWELL JUNCTION KINGSTON POUGHKEEPSIE POUGHKEEPSIE GOSHEN STORMVILLE WOODSTOCK OLIVE BRIDGE NEW PALTZ NEW PALTZ RHINEBECK WAPPINGERS FALLS RHINEBECK NEW PALTZ ROCKHILL STONE RIDGE POUGHKEEPSIE RHINEBECK WAPPINGERS FALLS STONE RIDGE GARRISON NEW PALTZ KENT KINGSTON NEW PALTZ STONE RIDGE BEACON NEW PALTZ WILLOW WAPPINGERS FALLS NEWBURGH HUDSON KENT KINGSTON WOODSTOCK NEWBURGH NEW PALTZ MILAN PHOENICIA ROUND TOP NEW PALTZ KINGSTON SAUGERTIES KINGSTON FISHKILL NEW PALTZ HUDSON RHINEBECK BEACON POUGHKEEPSIE WOODSTOCK POUGHKEEPSIE NEW PALTZ LAKE HILL RED HOOK RHINEBECK HUDSON POUGHQUAQ WOODSTOCK TIVOLI HYDE PARK CORNWALL NEWBURGH NEW PALTZ RED HOOK HUDSON GARDINER RHINEBECK BEACON HUDSON RHINEBECK ROSENDALE WOODSTOCK WOODSTOCK WOODSTOCK WOODSTOCK WASSAIC HIGHLAND STONE RIDGE MT. TREMPER NEW PALTZ

NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY CT NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY CT NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY

845-246 -4316 845-626-2676 845-255-4424 845-256-1516 845-679-9868 845-679-9541 845-647-5511 518-794-9100 845-679-0706 845-373-7000 845-436-6492 845-255-4033 845-343-2233 845-454-3254 845-897-3280 845-338-8313 845-483-5000 845-483-5000 845-294-6880 845-226-4000 845-679-5361 845-657-6059 845-257-2894 845-255-5613 845-876-5797 845-298-7417 845-876-3330 845-255-7990 845-791-1958 845-687-4466 845-473-2206 845-876-3671 845-298-8882 845-687-0810 845-424-3604 845-255-8212 860-927-4501 845-331-0986 845-255-2882 845-647-5383 845-220-7669 845-255-3337 845-688-7205 845-797-0330 845-569-0363 518-822-8448 860-927-3544 845-331-8710 845-679-3706 845-568-0100 845-256-9811 845-758-1979 845-688-5553 800-473-0519 845-255-9467 845-334-8459 845-247-4517 845-338-6322 845-896-1979 845-255-1559 518-828-0500 845-876-4546 845-838-2995 845-431-5663 845-679-7979 845-452-4990 845-883-7899 845-679-1127 845-757-5431 845-876-6208 518-822-1888 845-235-9329 845-679-7266 845-757-4000 845-229-5560 845-534-7668 845-566-3469 845-255-9400 845-758-6277 518-697-3500 845-255-4613 845-876-9663 845-831-1451 518-851-5656 845-875-2496 845-658-9133 845-679-7843 845-246-3744 845-679-9189 845-679-4265 845-877-6093 845-437-7178 845-687-4836 845-688-7993 845-255-3566

index of advertisers

KENT WINE & SPIRIT KIESENDAHL AND CALHOUN CONTEMPORARY ART KOENIG, VICKI KYOTO SUSHI LA Z BOY LEGGA INC LEISURE TIME SPRING WATER LIFE DESIGN CREATIVE HEALING LOOMINUS LOUNGE & LINGER LUNA 61 LUZ CLARA MAIN COURSE MALDEN, JILL MANNY’S ART SUPPLY MARK GRUBER GALLERY MAXWELL FINE ARTS MEET ME IN MARLBOROUGH MERRITT BOOKSTORE MEXICAN RADIO MEZZANINE BOOKS & CAFE MID HUDSON CHIROPRACTIC MID HUDSON MUSIC TOGETHER MID-HUDSON MARKETING MID-HUDSON REBIRTHING MID-HUDSON VALLEY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION MIRABAI MISTER SNACKS, INC. MOHONK IMAGES/ G. STEVE JORDAN GALLERY MONARDA HERBAL APOTHECARY MONKFISH PUBLISHING MOTHER EARTH’S STOREHOUSE MOUNT SAINT MARY COLLEGE N AND S SUPPLY NATURAL GOURMET COOKERY SCHOOL NATURE’S PAVILION NEKO SUSHI & RESTAURANT NESS, DAVID NET STEP NEW LIFE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT NEW PALTZ CHAMBER OF COMMERCE NEW SPIRIT OF WOODSTOCK NEW YORK PRESS DIRECT NEW YORK REGION PATHWORK NEW YORK SCHOOL OF SOCIAL GRACES NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION NEWBURGH VETERINARY HOSPITAL NIXON, DR. TONI NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM NORTHERN DUTCHESS HARDWOODS NORTHWEST CORNER ARTISANS NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL NUTSHELL REALTY OGUST, DION OLD DROVERS INN ONE LIGHT HEALING TOUCH ORIGIN COMMUNICATIONS OSAKA RESTAURANT PAD THAI CATERING PANZER, ELIZABETH PARK, HOON, MD PASTORALE PATHWAYS MEDIATION CENTER PATS TATS PAULINE OLIVEROS FOUNDATION PEARLS PEGASUS COMFORT FOOTWEAR PHANTOM GARDENER PHOTOSENSUALIS PILATES HUDSON PILATES OF NEW PALTZ PIQUE BOUTIQUE PLANET WAVES PLAZA DINER PLEASANT STONE FARM POUGHKEEPSIE FARM PROJECT POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL POWERHOUSE SUMMER THEATER/LEHMAN-LOEB GALLERY PROFESSIONAL PAINTING CO. RAMBLING ROSE RED CAP CLEANERS RESTAURANT MOOSILAUKE RHINEBECK CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY RHINEBECK COOPERATIVE HEALTH CENTER RHINEBECK SAVINGS BANK RHINEBECK WOMEN’S HEALTH ROASTED GARLIC AT THE RED HOOK INN ROBERTI MOTOR CARS ROMANCING THE WOODS, INC. ROSENDALE CEMENT COMPANY ROSENDALE WARES ROY GUMPEL PHOTOGRAPHY SADHANA YOGA CENTER SAPPHIRE SATTER, NAN SATYA YOGA CENTER, UPSTATE YOGA, LLC

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H O M E S

I N

T H E

M I D - H U D S O N

V A L L E Y

$ 8 5 / L I S T I N G . $ 2 1 5 F O R T H R E E . C A L L A C H R O N O G R A M S A L E S R E P R E S E N TAT I V E TO D AY TO L I S T YO U R P R O P E RT Y. D E A D L I N E : S E P T E M B E R 1 3 T H .

dwellings

DWELLINGS

178

LOG WEEKEND HOME

HISTORIC

GREAT OPPORTUNITY

Weekend home in the Catskill Park. This original log home has been lovingly restored along with its modern addition. 2 bedrooms 1 bath, 1, 012 square feet on .75 acres.The large new bathrm includes a new claw foot soaking tub.

The setting is semi-private with a small seasonal stream and lots of wildlife and wildflowers. $199,900 . Prudential Nutshell Realty (845) 658-3737. www.Nutshellrealty.com.

Historic D&H Canal House built in 1820; walk to marina’s; located on dead end street with Rondout Creek across the street for world class striped bass fishing and view of waterfall.Oak hand hewn beams;Lots of gardens for garden parties on almost acre of land.LOW TAXES - less than $3000!!! New mechanicals within last 5 yrs;two brick fireplaces,one in basement,one in downstairs bedroom closet, could be made serviceable.Wide plank floor under current wood floor.$249,000 Prudential Nutshell Realty (845) 658-3737.www.Nutshellrealty.com.

Opportunity abounds with this lovely home located in the heart of the Stone Ridge hamlet business district. Currently used as a 2-family, this home could easily be converted back to a single family with 3 BR and 2 BA.The upstairs aptmt has 820 sq. ft. and is fully equipped with 1 BR, LR, Kit, full bath and separate entrance.The B-1 commercial zoning could also provide an opportunity to establish a business use with plenty of room for parking in the rear yard.$275,000.

Prudential Nutshell Realty (845) 658-3737.www.Nutshellrealty.com.

CONTEMPORARY COLONIAL

SEEING IS BELIEVING!

HIGH FALLS CUTIE

This lovely 3,000+ sq. ft. contemporary Center Hall Colonial sits on 16+ acres with a pond. It features 3 or 4 BRs, 3 full baths, plus a 20” x 30” living room w/ 10’ ceiling, custom media wall & a slate fireplace. Walk outside on a bi-level cedar deck that overlooks apple trees, woods, fields & a bluestone niche waiting for your hot tub. 3 separate garages (total 2,100 sq. ft.) 1 is heated! Roundout schools. Perfect for horses or an active family. $535,900. Cindy Graham (845) 626-3402.

Circa 1895 Victorian is priced to sell at $159,000! Located on Main Street of the village of Cairo in Greene County, a very active and growing community. Ideally situated for a professional and/or small business with separate entrance for offices and storefront. 8 rooms plus sunroom and 1.5 baths. In addition to all of this, a secluded backyard which borders beautiful Shinglekill Creek. Contact Linda (800) 473-0519

Totally renovated the “Telephone” house is one of High Falls most charming bungalows.Many original arts & craft details still remain and yet all systems are completely upgraded.Currently 2 bed/1 bath home,1/2 acre yet zoning allows many uses.Private large luscious backyard! $289,900.Broker/Owner: Helen Nickerson@WestwoodMetes&BoundsRealty.helenindia@msn.com.

(845) 255-9400, ext 104.

OVERHEAD DOORS, INC. SALES • SERVICE • INSTALLATION

dwellings

SPECIALIZING IN QUALITY DOORS 168 Cornell Street • Kingston, NY 12401

Serving The Hudson Valley Since 1974 KINGSTON

RED HOOK

WESTCHESTER

CATSKILL

(845) 331-0191

(845) 758-0444

(914) 466-2685

(518) 943-2869

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Parting Shot

melissa stafford /

P

girl #5

aper Girls, Melissa Stafford's recent series of Polaroid images, began rather simply. Reading a magazine on her bed one night, Stafford started taking photographs of the women in the advertisements, framing the magazine photographs with her own hands, as in Girl #5. Stafford has shown at Firlefranz Gallery in Albany and will exhibit portraits from Paper Girls this fall at the Albany Institute of History and Art as part of the group exhibition "The Institute Show." Portraits from Paper Girls are also on display through September 25, part of the group show "Six Practices Converge," at Red Phenix Gallery, 123 Warren Street in Hudson, a temporary exhibition space. For information: (518) 758-7886.

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