Saturday, August 19: Performers at this inaugural event include NRBQ, Matchstick Architects, Black Mountain Symphony & the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus. The library tent will present readings by authors and illustrators and art demonstrations by Etsy volunteers.
On view until August 26: Artist Ernest Shaw explores what it means to be mortal at ASK gallery in Kingston. “All living things develop some kind of metaphorical armor – even plants and bacteria. Anxiety is an essential part of surviving.”
Saturday, August 19: Any other jazz eminences have stumbled on the rocks of Harvey Fite’s spectacular sculpture park, including local residents and jazz titans like DeJohnette, Holland, Abercrombie and (one-time local resident) Metheny. Still, there is something pretty special about this one: drummer Jimmy Cobb, the last surviving member of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue ensemble (a group that included John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Cannonball Adderley) takes to the rocks.
Friday, August 18: In symphonies and other large-scale orchestral works, composers stake their claims, craft their legacies and position themselves in the traditions. Chamber works and – especially – solo piano music, on the other hand, are more likely to be the composer’s secret heart-songs and experimental diaries. This is why I so much prefer them.
Stage IV breast cancer: a family affair; eclipse-viewing parties; Dirt: The Secret Life of Soil; Bindlestiff Family Cirkus at Hudson Summerfest; Bear Fair in Cragsmoor; and Volunteer Day with fireworks in Woodstock.
During the course of his life, writer and raconteur Malachy McCourt started the first singles’ bar in America, was a concrete inspector on the New Jersey Turnpike, a pioneer in talk radio, a soap opera star and a candidate for governor of the state of New York. Now he turns his gaze to Death.
Owner Jessica DuPont has noticed a lot of young people preferring to pick up a copy of a paper book as an antidote to screens.
It’s a classic of its type: a Silk City Diner, known in its day as the Cadillac of diners. Roughly 1,500 of them were turned out by the company between 1926 and 1966. The counter’s original Formica top bears the dark wear marks of hundreds of thousands of elbows bent over as many cups of coffee.
“Since I first saw one, I’ve fallen in love with Little Free Libraries,” he said. “I figured that there was nothing stopping me from having my own, and it was a fun idea.”
Got a barn or basement full of all manner of miscellany? Know someone who does? This could be your time to shine: The History Channel program “American Pickers” will be coming to New York State next month.