Berkshires, Redux: Northampton

Smith College Art Museum

I was thinking that today we would attend the Scottish Festival in Northampton, about a 55 mile drive from here.  As it turns out, it was so hot that we couldn't imagine enjoying log tossing.  Instead, we went to the Smith College Art Museum.  They have very impressive holdings.  The special exhibit was of posters from the 60's, Summer of Love.  For the first time, I realized how much influence the Art Nouveau had.  It was a wonderful nostalgic visit complete with 60's music playing.  The remaining 3 floors of the museum included new acquisitions that impressed me with the effort put forth.  The focus seems to be on works that are contemporary works which address political and social issues.  One thing I liked was a variety of benches made by artists and intended for sitting a viewing the art.  First, they were beautiful and unique.  Secondly, how nice to consider art while sitting on art, a continuum.

Tanglewood

This evening we returned to Tanglewood for Wagner's Ring Cycle, 2nd Act, The Valkyrie.  To me the voices in this opera are quite harsh.  But I love the instrumental section of the flying Valkyries.  Everyone else was enthralled and applauded, applauded, applauded, cheered, cheered, and applauded more.  It was a wonderful evening and way to end our time here.  Tomorrow we return home.  

Berkshires, Redux: Dream Away Lodge

Dream Away Lodge, Becket, MA

It is southern hot today, in the 90's.  It's been this way since yesterday and is predicted to stay so through tomorrow.  We had nothing specific planned so opted for indoor activities where air conditioning is available.  At the Rockwell Museum we saw a Disney Snow White illustration show.  Jack Craib would love this.  Also, there was a show by Jarvis Rockwell, Norman's son.  His portrait drawings were elegant and beautiful.  But he is also a collector of mass manufactured plastic toys which were displayed....not so interesting.  Most interesting to me were photographs of him in recognizable poses for his father's paintings.  I never knew Rockwell used his son for that. 

Next we went to Edith Wharton's The Mount.  We have not been there in several years and it was pleasurable to see the progress they have made in restoration.  The plaster carved ceilings were impressive.  The only Wharton book I've read is Ethan Frome.  

This evening we went to a fun and funky place, The Dream Away Lodge.  I discovered it by reading a previous guest's notes in the guest book.   The drive is about 8 miles up the mountain, through deep woods, past a few homes; no cars were on the road.  One pulls up to a large white house on a small hill with dozens of cars parked on the lot.  Where did they all come from?  Directing parking, the valet was dressed in torn off shorts, red tee shirt, floppy gray felt hat and sporting a beard.  Immediately, I knew this would be fun.  The front yard sloped down to the road with a scattering of chairs and tables.  To one side a big fire pit was billowing smoke and hosting a few people who were cooling off with beer.  Kids were running all over.  We ate on a rambling porch that wrapped around the house.  Plenty more seating was inside in rooms that had never been altered to become a restaurant.  The center room held a stage and musical instruments.  Every Wednesday and Friday local musicians play.  Once upon a time, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Dylan, Guthrie, etc have all played here.  What history.  After dinner we stayed for a bit of music from Podunk.  This will become a tradition, I think.   

The Berkshries, Redux: Williamstown Theatre Festival

Wayne in front of Louise Bougeois' Eyes, Williams College

Williamstown is a beautiful little college town nestled in the Berkshires.  Williams College is here as is the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and the Williamstown Theatre.  We spent the day there and took advantage of all these venues.  The little town has one main street that is filled with galleries.  My favorite is the Harrison Gallery.  This year the main show was a tribute to Henry Geldzahler with works by 4 artist who knew him.  Geldzahler was the first curator of contemporary art at the NY Met.  

Williams College is off main street and we walked to their little museum.  They were hanging a new show so all that was available to see was a bit of the permanent collection.  Most interesting was a maquette of Louise Bougeois sculptures that are on campus.  Eyes, Nine Elements was commissioned by the Museum in celebration of their 75th anniversary.  

Our next stop was the Clark, where a Winslow Homer show was in progress.  Sterling Clark owned more Homer's than any other artist, over 200 works.  I like Homer but Wayne does not.  Or, at least, does not like the ocean coast paintings.  This show had multiple wood engravings and watercolors, too.   I enjoyed seeing Homer's dedication to working and living in a place through his works.  

We still had time to kill before the theater and went to Bennington, VT.  Bennington is home to Bennington (duh!) Potters.  The pottery is very distinctive, stoneware with a speckled glaze.  We've bought things here over the years and today was no exception, coasters for our new table.  Bennington was readying itself for Midnight Madness that evening when all the stores open from 7pm to midnight with sales.  The town was jumping.  We had a great dinner at Allegro and then headed back to Williamstown.

Williamstown Theater is a nationally renowned summer stock theater that performs internationally recognized play writes and attracts significant actors such as Christopher Reeve, Blythe Danner and E.G. Marshall.  We saw, Hapgood, a play by Tom Stoppard starring Kate Burton.  I found it delightful.  The stage was perfect in deep grays and lit with a blue tone, perfect for the spy thriller.  The acting was so spot on, not a bit of over acting that I often feel is present on the stage.  

The Berkshires, Redux: Shakespeare and Co.

Wayne on the Grounds of Shakespeare & Co.

We have attended some of the best Shakespeare productions at Shakespeare and Co.  Founded by Tina Packer and originally performed on the grounds of The Mount, Edith Warton's Lenox home. The Company has moved to its own grounds in the center of Lenox. The extended facilities include training for professional and student actors, a footprint stage for a future replica of The Globe Theater.  Today we saw Richard II, first performed late in Elizabeth I reign.  This was also the time when Essex moved against the Queen to depose her.  The play was commissioned by supporters of Essex and seen as a means to help with the uprising.  It failed and Essex lost his head.  Elizabeth said, "Don't you know.  I am Richard II."  Chamberlain's Men (Shakespeare's troupe) were not punished.  You can see a bit of the play here.

The Berkshires, Redux: FDR Library

Stone Cottage at Val-Kill

It's a scorcher today, 90 degrees.  I love it.  Everything is soooo green and lush.  We drove to Hyde Park, NY down the Taconic Parkway with the glorious Catskill Mountains off to our west.  FDR's library was our destination.  We had been there in June to see the home and museum, but the library was closed for renovation.  The renovated library is very nice, beautifully captures FDR's personality and the period.  Boy, how I wish we had a politician like him again.  I think Bill Clinton came close to having FDR's empathy.  Of course, FDR had a Congress of his own party that backed his efforts.  There is so much today that echoes his era:  extreme disparity in wealth, efforts to undermine and extinguish social programs by business.  After, we drove over to Val-Kill.  It was closed but we could walk the property.  I am as much interested in Eleanor as Wayne is in FDR.  She was such a strong and caring person.  I find both of them amazing in their ability to empathize with the disenfranchised when they came from such privileged beginnings.  

The Berkshires, Redux: Mass MoCA

Rising Phoenix by Xu Bing at Mass MOCA

Our friends, the Lima's, left today.  They will continue their vacation in Philly.  We continued our's by going to Mass MoCA in North Adams.  Mass MoCA is a museum of contemporary art located in an abandoned mill which also offers a variety of music, dance, performance and education.  Thus, there are huge open spaces that offer wonderful opportunities for artists to come and built works.  Nothing is permanent here.  All shows are truly the newest works.  There were two artists exhibiting that I was interested in seeing. The photo above shows Wayne standing under the tail of one of Xu Bings sculptures of a phoenix.  For a better look visit  Xu Bing.  He has built two huge phoenix sculptures out of waste materials.  The other artist, Jason Middlebrook has pieces that address his relationship with nature.  He has taken vertical slices of huge trees and drawn or painted on them.  Both these artist's works are most impressive in person because the size and scale are so powerful.  

The Berkshires, Redux: Jacob's Pillow

This afternoon we went to Jabob's Pillow to watch Companhia Urbana de Danca.  Jacob's Pillow is a dance center, school and performance space in Becket. The organization is known for the oldest internationally acclaimed summer dance festival in the United States. The facility also includes a professional school and extensive archives as well as year-round community programs.  The Companhia de Urbana troupe consists of 7 men and 1 woman from the favelas of Brazil.  Their performance is a mixture of hip hop and Brazilian dance.  They were certainly impressive.  Watch a clip of their strength, flexibility and control on Youtube
This evening we ate at Bistro Zinc in Lenox, then returned home for a repeat performance of Friday night.  Oy!  

The Berkshires, Redux: Tanglewood

After a lazy beginning to our day (who can doubt that after our 2am bedtime), we drove to Great Barrington for the Berkshire's Annual Arts Fair.  It really is a nice fair with very high end goods presented by over 50 artists and performers.  None of us bought anything although we were tempted by some beautiful silk jackets and inventive glass vases.  There was an area dedicated to local artists where 2 were painting the surrounding mountains.  The fair is on the Butternut Ski grounds where a little slope was covered with wild thyme wafting its aroma throughout.  We left the fair to have lunch at a local Greek restaurant and then shop for tonight's Tanglewood picnic.  The shopping was something of a Whole Foods repeat performance complete with more smelly cheese and sweet things. The crowds this year seem light; very few people were at the crafts fair, and parking at Tanglewood was easy and close to the gate.  We settled on the grounds with our blanket, table and food for a full evening of Bernstein's West Side Story.  The rain even cooperated and vanished.  This is one of my favorite musicals.  I had the album as a teenager and know all the words to every song.  The movie has been re-released in high def and was shown on big screens with the BSO accompanying it.  "Tonight, tonight won't be just any night."  

The Berkshires, Redux

We arrived for our annual sojourn in The Berkshires around 4pm and waited for our friends Kathy and John Lima to arrive.  On the way in we stopped at Whole Foods to stock up on goodies needed for an uplifting week end.  All the foods we never need or should eat can be found there:  smelly ripe cheeses, salty fried crackers, deeply processed and very hard meats, buttery and sugary deserts.  Wayne bought dry aged steaks which were grilled after a period of swilling gin and vodka to wash down the aforementioned smelly cheeses and crackers.  Have you gotten the drift of the upcoming week end?  The steaks, btw, were delicious.  
We are staying at Fern Hollow in Becket, MA at the home of Kate and Greg Losi.  They, meantime, are staying in our Wareham home.  This is our 3rd year to exchange.  So far it is a mutually beneficial adventure.  Fern Hollow is set in a hollow about 1/4 mile off the road.  We are isolated and surrounded by woods. There is always the possibility of spotting a black bear.  We spend a lot of time on a lovely screened front porch where we can eat and relax beneath the giant trees.  
Our evening ended the next day about 2 a.m. after solving all the political, legal and familial problems (at least for the moment).