Esteemed Reader

Each of us individually is but a part of a being on a scale so vast as to be incomprehensible.

Local Luminary

An interview with Ann Davis, a leading light of the community.

Editor's Note: Enter the Wau Wau

Before the final chorus had settled across the packed house at Bard’s Spiegeltent on that balmy July evening, the Sisters had stripped (each other) to their underwear in an acrobatic burlesque that was part Pilobolus, part hilarity, part Scores, part blasphemy.

Featured Contributors: August

Featured contributors for August.

Department of Corrections

Jim Reardon’s letter to the editor about June’s “Better Blooms” article.

Beinhart's Body Politic: Marketplace of Ideas

In the marketplace of ideas the power of big money is kicking ass and rationality is down for the count.

Dirty Little Secrets

The trip was an “extraordinary rendition,” the transfer of a terror suspect to a foreign country for interrogation—and sometimes torture, human rights activists charge—outside of any legal process.

While You Were Sleeping—August

The gist of what you may have missed.

Horoscopes

You’re holding in your hands vital information about what it means to be stuck, and you’re on the threshold of discovering how you and the people closest to you can get brilliantly unstuck.

Where's Your Data?

After more than $50 million spent on testing and cleaning so far, the question is whether students will be exposed to that contamination, and, if so, how it will affect them.

Being Fertile

Don’t let an infertility diagnosis steal your ability to create life. Instead, discover the most creative, whole, healthy person you can be—and you may well make a baby in the process.

The Serendipity of a Bean Salad

I was struck. There it stood, like a signpost: the abundant flow of creative energy. Loud and clear it spoke. “The creative process uses every opportunity to create.”

Peaceful Heart, Warrior Spirit

Dan Millman, former world-champion athlete, university coach, martial arts instructor, and college professor is perhaps best known for his multimillion-selling autobiographical novel, Way of the Peaceful Warrior.

Dancing to a Different Drummer

His attitude toward dance as an expression of music is a no-no to most European post-moderns, whose emphasis is on conceptual movement over passionate musicality.

Lucid Dreaming

“Bivouac” takes a witty, somewhat arch approach to art, inventiveness, and imagined survivalism, while “Paths: Real and Imagined” gravitates toward an archetypal/metaphorical reading of its stated theme.

Blinded by Frankenscience

The idea for “Mothers of Invention” began in 2002, after Laura Poe read an article about GMO food “and the crazy, crazy things going on.”

The Writing on the Wall

As a postwar phenomenon, graffiti parallels the rise of street toughs and gangs. Its present form began in the late sixties, and became known as part of hip hop culture by the mid ’70s.

Outside the Box

A round-up of unique Hudson Valley cultural outings.

Portfolio: Sarah Mecklem

Sarah Greer Mecklem is an artist whose life and career have always been intricately intertwined with the history and—more importantly—the experience of the Hudson Valley.

Conversation of the Birds

Perhaps science doesn’t take the topic seriously, but David Rothenberg has devoted his career to listening to nature in a musical way.

Cassandra in a Party Dress

Martha Beall Mitchell was known for her coruscating gift of gab. But her unbridled Southern charm barely camouflaged a sly intelligence that was neither expected nor tolerated in Washington wives.

Shared Enchantment

On August 24 and 25 from 7 to 11pm (raindate August 26), Arm-of-the-Sea will present its seventh annual “Esopus Creek Puppet Suite” at Tina Chorvas Waterfront Park in Saugerties.

Book Review: A Portrait of Pia

Pia’s story is eminently accessible to young teens. The characters and their dilemmas are drawn with loving detail and the book’s lack of simple resolutions rings of real life.

The Gospel According to Pinkwater

Daniel Pinkwater’s voice—instantly recognizable to NPR listeners—resonates down the stairwell as he appears, a Hitchcockian silhouette dressed in top-to-toe black with a dusting of pet hair.

Book Reviews: Way of Water and Welcome to Camden Falls

Fate, often enough, arrives as a beanball. Down you go, a crumple in the dirt. Then, through the pain and vapors, you see a hissing curveball coming your way. That’s when life gets interesting.

Summer Reading Round-up for Kids

Susan Krawitz and Nina Shengold offer their picks for picture books, poetry, and young adult titles.

Eco Style

“Organic clothing is not just about Birkenstocks and long skirts anymore,” says Joanna Black of Hip-E-Living in Woodstock.

Saving Face

There are alternatives for those seeking a more holistic approach to facial rejuvenation and want to forgo the dramatic change a scalpel promises for a more natural and subtle improvement.

Conformity or Cooties?

I hope that in the future, the public school system will try harder to cater to students’ individual needs, so that they don’t have to wait until high school to appreciate their talents.

Music Together

Music has become something we consume rather than something we create. The truth is that making music and exploring movement is for everyone.

CD Review: Artie Traum

Artie Traum’s all-star local band—Levin, drummer Gary Burke, pianist Warren Bernhardt and special guests like John Sebastian —lead us on an invigorating tour of Americana.

CD Review: Dead Unicorn

Dead Unicorn tears through the material with a gleeful malevolence reminiscent of early Killing Joke.

CD Review: Samuel Claiborne

Samuel Claiborne has certainly had no shortage of pain and spiritual trials from which to draw for the sparse, fathomless, and profoundly moving solo piano improvisations in The Annunciation.

Back to the Future

This is TONTO, which, at a height of five feet and occupying 300 square feet, is the world’s largest analog synthesizer and the very one played by Stevie Wonder.

The Possible Dream

Richard Rothbard and his wife, Joanna, who is also an artist, manage American Art Marketing out of their rustic home in the Orange County town of Slate Hill.

Ellenville Awakens

According to those people who are keeping Ellenville’s blood pumping, it’s time to find a new way to try and wake their village up. And the Ellenville Area Arts Alliance, or EA3, is hoping to be the solution.

On the Cover

Jessica Houston traveled to the Greek island of Paros in 1992 to study writing—and instead began an affair with art that has enraptured her since.

Mediterranean Oasis

The beauty and distinctiveness of Serevan lies in its historical charm and architectural finesse—living, breathing entities that have been gently cultivated by an Armenian from Tehran, chef and proprietor Serge Madikians.

Poem: A Perfect Match

She smirked unpleasantly at the irony of the situation.
We are just pawns in this important decision of our lives.

Poem: Lullaby for Letting Go

False because it was conjured by
A two-year-old mind,
Straining to have
One
Defining
Moment
By which to live her life.

Poem: Repeat

He has the brightest eyes.
That’s what people say when I show them pictures.
You should see them when they’re closed,
I think.

Poem: No One

I talk to no one
When no one is here

Poem: On Yet Another Birthday

each year when i take it
out of its velvet-lined box
to play and replay
my father’s message

Poem: Arson Baptism

Burn me fresh.

Poem: In the Second World

Lucas isinUruguaywithhisgirlfriend,trying hishandatwriting
andsays hehasathousandnewideaseachmorning

Poem: No More Bees

I want to stick my head into a patch of daffodils
and do whatever the bees do
to pollinate the earth.

Poem: Lunch

Just the other side of the fence, a yard cat hides
In the ditch along side the dirt road and paws
The tall grass.

Parting Shot: Norm Magnusson

Norm Magnusson’s mock historical markers will be installed in Ridgefield, Connecticut for the exhibition, “On This Site Stood,” through August 12.