All posts by Tad Wise

Obituary: Kiriki Metzo

Obituary: Kiriki Metzo

Kiriki Metzo, daughter Woodstock legend Julio de Diego and imbued with a colorful history all her own died at home in her Westbeth apartment in lower Manhattan on November 3. She was 90 years old.

America, in eight books

America, in eight books

Anyone who could object to Luzzi’s tidal wave of eloquence while hypnotized by sorcerers of erudition spanning the last 3000 years is nothing less than a modern-day Scrooge.

Zulma Steele: Gender blender extraordinaire

Zulma Steele: Gender blender extraordinaire

A renowned beauty and intellect of legendary sensuality and style, she was praised, envied, scandalized, even worshipped (for one, by Byrdcliffe’s founder Ralph Whitehead, who named the domicile he built for her “The Angel.”) But though she was the first great woman artist of Woodstock, her face remains all but unknown to us.

Gender blending in early Woodstock & our first female genius

Gender blending in early Woodstock & our first female genius

The idea that a feminine impulse could save testosterone-driven capitalism from itself is not new. In fact the notion was subtly rooted in Woodstock’s first back-to-nature, Arts and Crafts community, Byrdcliffe. Here a bisexual and lesbian sub-culture prevailed unacknowledged, even by itself. Historians of an earlier era remained at best vague in describing it, and at worst silent. That silence ends now.

Yankeetown Pond bought for a dollar! (Part 2)

Yankeetown Pond bought for a dollar! (Part 2)

Rumors proliferate in Woodstock like botulism in an ancient can of tuna fish. So until it failed to go away, I paid little mind to the one in the headline. A single visit to the town offices, however, and the gossip was at least partially substantiated. Someone named Erin Moran had indeed purchased 24 acres of land under and around one of Woodstock’s less advertised treasures (which occupies approximately 125 acres) for a dollar. Part 2 of 2.

Yankeetown Pond bought for a dollar! (Part 1)

Yankeetown Pond bought for a dollar! (Part 1)

Rumors proliferate in Woodstock like botulism in an ancient can of tuna fish. So until it failed to go away, I paid little mind to the one in the headline. A single visit to the town offices, however, and the gossip was at least partially substantiated. Someone named Erin Moran had indeed purchased 24 acres of land under and around one of Woodstock’s less advertised treasures (which occupies approximately 125 acres) for a dollar.