2018 has been a hugely emotionally challenging year for many people. Considering all the draining forces at play in what passes for the sphere of public “discourse” these days, it is a wonder that in the upcoming O-Positive we have a homegrown festival that helps us redirect our conversations and concentration toward wellness and creativity.

Good tidings to you, fair reader. I am writing this week’s edition of Kingston After Dark on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s birthday, surely as good a day (and better than many) to ponder impermanence.

When I first heard California’s Wax Idols around 2015’s American Tragic album, I was sure I’d discovered a modern band as catchy as and with as well-written songs as The Pretenders, if Chrissie Hynde, James Honeyman-Scott, et al. were way more goth. That sounds perfect, right? It really is.

Wright, along with our columnist, will be opening for Globelamp at the The Anchor on Friday, Aug. 31.

This scorching month will fittingly see the release of In the Shadow of the Mountain, the latest album from hot coal-juggling hillbilly punks Red Neckromancer. They’ll perform at The Anchor Saturday, Aug. 18.

Brooklyn’s Charming Disaster is a musical duo formed in 2012 by Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris. Though colorfully describing themselves to me as Siamese twins, a two-headed octopus or a binary star system, the band fall short of conveying a true sense of their vertiginous and quirky Gothic Americana. To truly understand the band, you need to hear their recent album Cautionary Tales or see them live at Rough Draft Bar & Books on Wednesday, Aug. 8.

An interview with Kim Gordon and Bill Nace ahead of their upcoming BSP Kingston back room theater appearance on Friday, July 20.

Did you know there is an Anatolian Mother Goddess-worshipping LGBTQ friendly temple and Pagan spirituality center in misty and forested Palenville?

Our city is whatever we choose to allow our city to be.