Saturday, April 21: Physical media – in other words “things” and “stuff” – changing hands with the bacteria and bills in cramped rooms with real people leaning on racks, some of whom know what they are talking about: Record Store Day remembers and celebrates what we used to just call reality.
Saturday, April 21: Perhaps the greatest (and certainly the most employed) living player of the Dobro resonator guitar, the 14-time Grammy-winner has played with…let’s call it everybody and move on.
Sunday, April 15: Whether art should be a reflection of reality or a perfection of it is a little out of my scope at the moment, but I do want to recall how utterly alien the Afrocentric “conscious rap” of Arrested Development sounded to these ears in early ’90s, when the album for which they will always be known, 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life of…, dropped into the middle of a world obsessed with gangsta rap on the one hand and the inflammatory politics of Public Enemy on the other.
Saturday, April 14: This virtuosic group covers a remarkable amount of stylistic ground, from traditional to beatbox R & B and all manner of pop reinterpretation.
Saturday, April 7: By focusing on the relationships that took shape among faculty, students and artists unaffiliated with the college, “Golden Age” tells the story of a small-town scene that would produce art of a significance disproportionate to the town’s and the program’s size.
Saturday, April 7: After nearly 50 years in the music business, Bettye LaVette’s 2005 album I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise introduced the legendary Detroit-raised R & B vocalist to a wider audience for the first time. It has been red carpets and Grammy nominations ever since.
Friday, April 6: Students from Marist, Bard, Vassar and SUNY-New Paltz come together to present “Kingdom Come: The West African Experience.” What began as the senior project of New Paltz Communications major Nathalie Mensah has blossomed into a much larger unifying initiative.
Friday, April 6: Alex Mazur’s band is fed by a player stream that the Dead itself has drawn from.
Opening on Saturday, April 7: Max’s interest in astronomy drove the development of the “spacy” imagery of his self-described “Cosmic ’60s” period, when his artwork in poster form became a staple of many a dorm-room wall. The pervasive influence of his signature style can be seen in such countercultural iconography of the era as the animation in the Beatles’ film Yellow Submarine.
Saturday, April 7: Opening of “ISDay: Saugerties” exhibition. Throughout April, Saugerties will join hundreds of artists, organizations and institutions in more than 20 countries in celebrating sculpture.