The somewhat-reclusive master was friends with the biggest names of the day – Rothko, de Kooning et cetera – but had little use for the spotlight of New York City. In 1967, Guston moved his family to the “arts colony” known as Woodstock and remained there, working and commuting to teach in New York.
Friday, July 12-Sunday, July 14: Want to take a flight in a hot-air balloon, or go aloft on a tethered ride? No problem. A helicopter ride more your speed? Yeah, you can do that, too. Or do you just want to take in the spectacle of more than 100 hot-air balloons launching throughout the weekend? Or view the Illumination Moon Glow on Friday and Saturday evenings: a stationary display of hot-air balloons with their burners fired up, glowing against the night sky? A greater number than ever of the eyecatching “shape balloons” are expected this year – which have included lighthouses, cartoon animals and even a tuxedo balloon – and the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome will get into the act, too, with an antique airplane display and flyovers (wind and weather permitting, as is true of all flight activities over the weekend).
“The beauty of ballooning here is the topography,” says Chris Healy, a balloonist with 33 years experience. “It’s just a beautiful place to fly. I’ve flown most places in the country, and if you’re flying in California, or Arizona, out toward the desert, you’ve really got to like brown. And if you’re going to fly down South, you’ve got to like flat. But here we’ve got the Shawangunk Ridge to the north, we’ve got the valley carved out by a glacier and the Hudson River. Rolling green hills, farmland, lakes and streams: This really is one of the best areas in the whole country to fly in.”
July 8-26: Combining a packed schedule of performances, competitions and open master classes, a positively grueling training regimen for a small group of well-vetted aspirants and, one imagines, a few pretty high-end cocktail parties, PianoSummer at SUNY-New Paltz returns for another season of celebrating the continued vitality of the 88 keys and the centuries’ worth of brilliant music written for them.
As sure and as welcome a sign of summer as the appearance of lightning bugs after dark, outdoor Shakespeare performances have returned to our fair valley.
July 11-21: When the question is raised, “What was the worst song ever recorded?” among the most popular answers is an offkey lament for a lost cat titled “My Pal Foot Foot.” It appeared on the album Philosophy of the World, released in 1969 by the Shaggs. It’s said that only 1,000 copies of the LP were pressed, and that the band’s manager absconded with 900 of them. Their strange story inspired Joy Gregory and Gunnar Madsen to write an “unconventional musical” called The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, which premiered in Los Angeles in 2003 and is being performed at Catskills Bridge Street Theatre.
In the spirit of its founder, the great Hudson River School painter Frederic Church, Olana’s 2019 season of events is rich in adventurous, thoughtful and in some cases downright experimental programs – not necessarily the staid curatorial approach that one has maybe been conditioned to expect of historical sites.
On Thursdays in July and August, Bard opens the fabulous Spiegeltent to the curatorially adventurous Catskill Jazz factory. It is a lineup of shows not to missed. The Catskill Jazz Factory has been an especially stellar and opulent example of a jazz incubator and advocacy organization dedicated to nurturing young talent, sustaining jazz’s great careers and advancing jazz appreciation worldwide.
Saturday, July 6: To call Kingston “instrumental” in the national launch of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles band Lucius would be a bit of an embellishment of the kind we should leave to realtors, gentry-baiting developers and their pocket scribes. But one thing is for certain: The second of their two shows at BSP – in February of 2013, months after their O+ debut – happened to coincide with the exact instant of their national liftoff. I am still scarred by the afterburners.
Saturday, July 6: The Stonewall Riots in Manhattan, which sparked a national groundswell of activism for LGBTQ rights, are among the history-making events of 1969 whose 50th anniversaries are being remembered this year. The 260+-member New York City Gay Men’s Chorus has put together a commemorative program and it’s coming to an arts venue near you – namely, the Lumberyard in Catskill.