Sunday, August 19: The first gravity vehicle will launch at or about 12 noon from the corner of Broadway and Spring Street, and the last…well, that depends on how well things roll this year. Remember, this is not a race, but an artistic competition, and every Derby seems to include at least one or two pieces of “kinetic art” that require a fair bit of encouragement to make it in a more-or-less straight line to the bottom of the hill.
Friday-Sunday, August 17-19: The Hudson Valley Ribfest is a qualifying event for the Empire State Barbecue Championship, and there will be 60 teams firing up their grills and smokers to prepare their cherished recipes.
Sunday, August 19: OAR has always seemed to occupy a parallel universe, a cultic otherness reminiscent of those Christian rock bands you’ve never heard of selling out 100,000-seat football stadiums. What I love about OAR is that they know it; they embrace it. Their press release states, “In effect hiding in plain sight from the world outside, the band fills arenas and amphitheaters as it crafts and releases relatable songs with big pop hooks, all of this activity going down completely apart from the mainstream. Within this universe, these songs are bona fide hits, and the band members are superstars.”
Friday-Sunday, August 24-26: Huichica (pronounced wah-CHEE-ka) East answers the West Coast’s storied festival with pastoral settings, adventurous and hip music and farm-grown food.
Saturday, August 18: You may not know the name (or maybe you do), but to insiders the guy is a giant.
Saturday, August 18: If you listen to the first four Kansas albums, you will hear compositions that are every bit the equal of early Genesis in terms of counterpoint and formal design, and the music routinely rocks harder as well.
Saturday, August 18: Guests are invited to sit in on the mystery of studio recording as the Vermont-based retro soul/pop singer lays down a live album that will be her next release. The Burlington singer and her band work in the swanky, uptown-retro tradition of Dap-Tone and Amy Winehouse.
Sunday, August 19: This one-day festival in Accord assembles many of Levon Helm’s most famous collaborators (and admirers).
Mary Frank describes the subject matter of her latest body of her work, much of it exhibited at a new show at Elena Zang Gallery titled “Refuge,” as about “evolution and de-evolution. For me, everything is about returning to origins.”
“Since new vanguards emerge in quick succession, my career choice has allowed me to track several generations of art pioneers.”